Maltcégj

Introduction

Maltcégj is an a priori, agglutinative, semi-analytic head-initial language created by BenJamin P. Johnson in 2001. It has a strict VSO sentence structure that is modified with large numbers of verbal and nominal particles.

Writing Systems

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA
a	/a/	j	/ʒ/	ʀ	/ɹ̩/
b	/b/	k	/k/	s	/s/
c	/ʃ/	l	/l/	t	/t/
d	/d/	ɮ	/ɮ,ɬ/	þ	/θ/
ð	/ð/	ʌ	/ɫ̩/	u	/u/
e	/ɛ/	m	/m/	v	/v/
f	/f/	n	/n/	w	/w/
g	/g/	o	/o/	x	/x/
ǧ	/γ/	ǫ	/ɔ/	y	/ɪ/
h	/h/	p	/p/	ẏ	/j/
i	/i/	r	/ɾ/	z	/z/

Orthography

Primary stress is indicated in words of more than one syllable with an acute accent over the primary vowel. In diphthongs, the accent is placed on the first vowel.

Where two vowels appear together but are not a diphthong, the second vowel is marked with a diæresis if it is a front vowel; with a single dot if a back vowel (i.e. ï, ÿ, ë, ȧ, ǫ̇, ȯ, u̇), e.g. oï. Even if this would not result in a standard diphthong, this convention is still followed any time there are two disyllabic pertingent vowels, e.g. kúluï 'all', itáliȧ 'Italy'.

If the second vowel is stressed, however, the first vowel is marked instead, e.g. italiáno → italïáno 'Italian'.

No capital letters are used.

Native Writing System

Maltcégj is also written using a featural alphabet which treats the vowels as diacritics, and also uses diacritics to describe manner of articulation and consonant clusters. In all there are only seven “letters”; all other phonetic functions are filled by diacritics or modifications of these seven characters. (Actually, there are really only four: the labial, dental, palatal, and glottal forms are just directional variations of the same character, and the rhotic is just a turned lambdic.)

Phonology

Stops

Unvoiced			Voiced
p	/p/	as in put	b	/b/	as in bat
t	/t/	as in top	d	/d/	as in dog
k	/k/	as in keep	g	/g/	as in get

Initial unvoiced stops have a tendency to be aspirated (as in Germanic languages).

Affricates

Unvoiced		Voiced
ts	/t͡s/	dz	/d͡z/
tc	/t͡ʃ/	dj	/d͡ʒ/

There are four "pure" affricates in Maltcégj, though no affricates are represented by their own character. For more information, see Consonant Clusters, below.

Fricatives

Unvoiced		Voiced
f	/f/	v	/v/
þ	/θ/	ð	/ð/
s	/s/	z	/z/
c	/ʃ/	j	/ʒ/
x	/x/	ğ	/γ/
h	/h/

Nasals

m

/m/

n

/n/

NB: There is no realization of /ŋ/, even before a velar obstruent. In many cases, an epenthetic <e> may intervene between <n> and a velar, but even when it does not, the letters are pronounced independently. E.g. gýnko /'gɪn.ko/ 'ginko', not **/'gɪŋ.ko/.

Liquids

l	/l/
r	/ɾ/
ɮ	/ɮ,ɬ/*
ʌ	/ɫ̩/
ʀ	/ɹ̩/

<ɮ> becomes devoiced to /ɬ/ when it occurs adjacent to an unvoiced obstruent (most frequently in the clusters <pɮ>, <tɮ>, and <kɮ>).

Glides

w

/w/

ẏ

/j/

Vowels

Front		Back
i	/i/	u	/u/
y	/ɪ/	o	/o/
e	/ɛ/	ǫ	/ɔ/
		a	/ɑ/

Syllabic Liquids

ʌ

/ɫ̩/

ʀ

/ɹ̩/

<ʌ> and <ʀ> are considered vowels in Maltcégj and never occur in a non-syllabic context. However, they are not subject to the same diacritic rules for other non-diphthongs as other vowels.

Diphthongs

Front		Back
ai	/ai̯/	au	/au̯/
ei	/ɛi̯/	eu	/ɛu̯/
oi	/ɔi̯/