Ábḫanni

Ábḫanni
Pronunciation	[[ˈáβ.xɐn̪.n̪i]]
Created by	Thisimpliesthis
Setting	Tantíyoz
Language family	Abhannic languages Ábḫanni

Ábḫanni [ˈáβ.xɐn̪.n̪i] is a divergent Abhannic language, and is an isolate within this family, forming its own branch.

Phonology

Consonants

Ábḫanni has a rather asymmetric consonant inventory. It consists of the following:

		Labial	Dental or alveolar	Palatal or prepalatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n̪/	j /ɲ̟/
Plosive	voiceless		t /t̪/		k /k/
	prenasalized	mb /ᵐb/	nd /ⁿd̪/		ng /ᵑɡ/
Fricative	voiceless		z /θ̱/	s /ɕ/	ḫ /x/
	voiced	b /β/	d /ð/	jh /ʑ/		h /ɦ/
Liquid			r /ɺ/	y /j/

Notes:

• The prepalatal nasal /ɲ̟/ is written nj when geminated.

• The consonants /n̪/, /t̪/, /ⁿd̪/, and /θ̱/ are denti-alveolar and laminal; /ð/ is interdental and apical; and /ɺ/ is alveolar and apical.

• The unvoiced plosives /t̪/ and /k/ are slightly aspirated, except word-finally.

• The unvoiced dental fricative /θ̱/ is a denti-alveolar nonsibilant fricative, i.e., a non-sibilant version of [s̪].

• The consonant /ɺ/ is generally pronounced as a lateral flap. Word-finally, this consonant is sometimes weakened to [ɦ].

The Ábḫanni consonants are subject to the following allophonic rules:

• /n̪/ becomes [ŋ] when preceding /k/.

• When ungeminated and preceding a stressed vowel, /ɲ̟/ becomes the prenasalized voiced plosive [ᶮɟ̟].

• /t̪/ and /k/ become [d̪] and [g], respectively, when not geminated and following /n̪/.

• The velar consonants /k/, /ᵑɡ/, and /x/ become prevelar /k̟/, /ᵑɡ̟/, and /x̟/, respectively, when preceding /i/.

• /ᵑɡ/ becomes [ŋ] when not preceding a stressed or secondarily stressed vowel.

• When geminated, /β/ becomes [pp] and is written pp.

• The lateral flap /ɺ/ is subject to the regular anticipatory dissimilation /ɺVɺ/ → /nVɺ/.

Vowels

The vowel system of Ábḫanni is, described minimally, /i e ɔ a/, and features length and tone distinctions, diphthongs, and some vowel harmony. The full set of vowel phonemes is as follows:

		Front		Back
		short	long	short	long
Close		i í /i í/	ii íi ií /iː îː ǐː/
Mid	pure	e é /e é/		o ó /ɔ ɔ́/
	closing		ei éi eí /eːɪ̯ êːɪ̯ ěːɪ̯/	oi ói /ɔɪ̯ ɔ́ɪ̯/	ou óu oú /ɔːʊ̯ ɔ̂ːʊ̯ ɔ̌ːʊ̯/
Open	pure	a á /a á/	aa áa aá /aː âː ǎː/
	closing	ai ái /aɪ̯ áɪ̯/	aai áai aái /aːɪ̯ âːɪ̯ ǎːɪ̯/	ao áo /ɑɔ̯ ɑ́ɔ̯/	aao áao aáo /ɑːɔ̯ ɑ̂ːɔ̯ ɑ̌ːɔ̯/

The tonal system of Ábḫanni is more accurately described as a pitch-accent system, as all words must take exactly one high-tone vowel. The placement of the high tone carries much grammatical and lexical function. For example, in active verbs, movement of the stress to the end of the root, or replacement of a falling with a rising tone, is used to mark the irrealis moods; e.g., ḫáza '(it) fell' versus aḫzá '(it) might fall'.

Phonotactics

Phoneme distribution

Some of Ábḫanni's consonants, especially those which are less common, are restricted in their distribution (see also the section on consonant clusters). For example:

• The prenasalized consonants only occur word-initially and are relatively uncommon.

• The voiced dental fricative /ð/ is a true interdental fricative. This phoneme is very uncommon and its distribution is highly restricted, occuring only in /aˈðV/, /aˌðV/, /ˈað.xV/, and /ˌað.xV/ sequences.

• The lateral flap /ɺ/ does not occur word-initially, where it is replaced by /ɦ/. For example, háḫ 'person' derives from an earlier rág, whence the collective form sárḫo '(group of) people'. However, this /ɺ/-/ɦ/ alteration is no longer productive, so any productive morphology treats háḫ as if its underlying initial consonant were really /ɦ/.

• The palatal approximant /j/ has restricted distribution, occuring only sequences of the form /VjV/ while adjacent to at least one /i/ or [ɪ̯], or in the sequence /#ja/.