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Orthographies for Western dialects
(Work in progress; phonology section)
 
(Orthographies for Western dialects)
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** A glottal stop /ʔ/ only appears as a lenited form of /g/ for some speakers. Most speakers drop it altogether.
** A glottal stop /ʔ/ only appears as a lenited form of /g/ for some speakers. Most speakers drop it altogether.
** The phoneme /ʃ/ is only found as a palatalized /s/ and may alternate with /sj/. Its voiced version /ʒ/ is marginal and is equivalent to the rare /zj/ sequence.
** The phoneme /ʃ/ is only found as a palatalized /s/ and may alternate with /sj/. Its voiced version /ʒ/ is marginal and is equivalent to the rare /zj/ sequence.
** In Western and North-Western Efenol word-final /v/ are often realized as [β].
** The phoneme /ç/ may only arise as a rare lenited form of /ʃ/ (where it would corresponds to a /hj/) or as an allophone of a word-final /g/, particularly after an /i/. In the latter case, some Western Efenol speakers may also use [ʝ], [x], [ɣ] or simply [g].
** The phoneme /ç/ may only arise as a rare lenited form of /ʃ/ (where it would corresponds to a /hj/) or as an allophone of a word-final /g/, particularly after an /i/. In the latter case, some Western Efenol speakers may also use [ʝ], [x], [ɣ] or simply [g].
** In Western Efenol, the phoneme /r/ only occurs at the beginning of a lexeme (it may appear in non-word-initial position in compounds or if preclitics or prefixes are involved). Most Western Efenol speakeres fully merge /r/ and /ʀ/ into /ʀ/, regardless of the context. This common merger, however, is not reflected in Standard Efenol.
** In Western Efenol, the phoneme /r/ only occurs at the beginning of a lexeme (it may appear in non-word-initial position in compounds or if preclitics or prefixes are involved). Most Western Efenol speakeres fully merge /r/ and /ʀ/ into /ʀ/, regardless of the context. This common merger, however, is not reflected in Standard Efenol.
** All instances of word-final /l/ with a preceding /i/ are palatalized to /j/. This is also true for North-Western Efenol but not for any other Efenol variety. This pronunciation isn't reflected in writing.
** All instances of word-final /l/ with a preceding /i/ are palatalized to /ʎ/. This is also true for North-Western Efenol but not for any other Efenol variety. This pronunciation isn't reflected in writing.
** The velarized lateral /ɫ/ is in free variation with the lateral fricatives /ɬ/ and /ɮ/.
** The velarized lateral /ɫ/ is in free variation with the lateral fricatives /ɬ/ and /ɮ/.
* '''About other dialects''':
* '''About other dialects''':
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** Eastern Efenol merges the phonemes /s/ and /z/ into /s/. This is also the case for most Central Efenol speakers and a small minority of Western Efenol speakers.
** Eastern Efenol merges the phonemes /s/ and /z/ into /s/. This is also the case for most Central Efenol speakers and a small minority of Western Efenol speakers.
** The phonemes /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are only found as such in the Western and North-Western dialects.
** The phonemes /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are only found as such in the Western and North-Western dialects.
** The phoneme /ç/ is found in North-Eastern Efenol as a lenited form of /g/ and in Northern Efenol as a word-final allophone of /g/ (as in Standard Efenol).
** The phoneme /ç/ is found in North-Eastern Efenol as a lenited form of /g/ and in Northern and North-Western Efenol as a word-final allophone of /g/ (as in Standard Efenol).
** Eastern Efenol features the phoneme /ʝ/.
** Central Efenol features the phoneme /ɣ/.
** Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol merge /x/ and /h/ into /x/. Meanwhile, some forms of Northern Efenol (most notably ''Hunzad'') merge both phonemes to /h/, although most Northern Efenol speakers keep the distinction.
** Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol merge /x/ and /h/ into /x/. Meanwhile, some forms of Northern Efenol (most notably ''Hunzad'') merge both phonemes to /h/, although most Northern Efenol speakers keep the distinction.
** A minority of Northern Efenol speakers feature a pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ as a phoneme arising from a lenited /g/ (typically expressed as /x/ in Northern Efenol). This subdialectal feature, once also found in North-Western and some forms of Western Efenol, is sharply falling out of use.
** A minority of Northern Efenol speakers feature a pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ as a phoneme arising from a lenited /g/ (typically expressed as /x/ in Northern Efenol). This subdialectal feature, once also found in North-Western and some forms of Western Efenol, is sharply falling out of use.
** Eastern and most forms of North-Eastern Efenol feature an alveolo-palatal affricate /tʃ/.
** Eastern, North-Western and most forms of North-Eastern Efenol feature alveolo-palatal affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.
** Northern and North-Eastern Efenol feature an alveolar affricate /ts/.
** Northern and North-Eastern Efenol feature an alveolar affricate /ts/.
** Unlike Western (and North-Western) Efenol, the alveolar trill /r/ may occur word-medially in other dialects. Only Northern and Central Efenol allow a word-final trill.
** Unlike Western (and North-Western) Efenol, the alveolar trill /r/ may occur word-medially in other dialects. Only Northern and Central Efenol allow a word-final trill.
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'''Eastern Efenol''', however, features the largest vowel inventory as it features lax and tense vowel pairs due to vowel reduction. Tense vowels include /ä e ø o i y u/ while their lax equivalents can be /a ɛ œ ɔ ɪ ʏ ʊ/ although nearly all Eastern Efenol varieties merge unstressed /ɛ/ and /œ/ into /ɛ/ while some varieties also merge stressed /e/ and /ø/ into /e/. In addition to those vowels, Eastern Efenol features a schwa /ə/ as an epenthetic vowel. Thus, the vowel inventory is /a ä ɛ (œ) ɔ ə e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/ with /œ/ being absent from most forms of Eastern Efenol. '''North-Eastern Efenol''' features the same vowel inventory (and largely with the same variations) but usually omitting the schwa /ə/ except perhaps as a reduced /ä/ in free variation with [a]: /a~ə ä ɛ (œ) ɔ e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/.
'''Eastern Efenol''', however, features the largest vowel inventory as it features lax and tense vowel pairs due to vowel reduction. Tense vowels include /ä e ø o i y u/ while their lax equivalents can be /a ɛ œ ɔ ɪ ʏ ʊ/ although nearly all Eastern Efenol varieties merge unstressed /ɛ/ and /œ/ into /ɛ/ while some varieties also merge stressed /e/ and /ø/ into /e/. In addition to those vowels, Eastern Efenol features a schwa /ə/ as an epenthetic vowel. Thus, the vowel inventory is /a ä ɛ (œ) ɔ ə e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/ with /œ/ being absent from most forms of Eastern Efenol. '''North-Eastern Efenol''' features the same vowel inventory (and largely with the same variations) but usually omitting the schwa /ə/ except perhaps as a reduced /ä/ in free variation with [a]: /a~ə ä ɛ (œ) ɔ e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/.


'''In all dialects vowel length is phonemic''' and independent from stress. In Eastern and North-Eastern dialects long vowels have tense vowel qualities. Thus, a long /iː/ in Standard Efenol would always correspond to an Eastern /iː/ (rathern than an */ɪː/) even the stress lied elsewhere.
'''In all dialects vowel length is phonemic''' and independent from stress. In Eastern and North-Eastern dialects long vowels have tense vowel qualities. Thus, a long /iː/ in Standard Efenol would always correspond to an Eastern /iː/ (rather than */ɪː/) even the stress lied elsewhere.


Clusters of short vowels are typically realized as diphthongs.
Clusters of short vowels are typically realized as diphthongs.
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A rising intonation is associated to questions (which may be formed by intonation alone, as it is also the case in standard Spanish).
A rising intonation is associated to questions (which may be formed by intonation alone, as it is also the case in standard Spanish).
===Orthography===
Despite the fact that Standard Efenol (based on Western Efenol) dominates the written language, each dialect has an orthography of its own.
There are two main families of dialectal orthographies: western-like (based on the Standard, Western orthography) and northern-like (an alternative originally formulated for Northern Efenol). There are major differences between the two: western-like orthographies use a large number of digraphs and for the most part have only one pronunciation for each letter while northernlike orthographies use a reduced number of digraphs but have letters whose pronunciation vary depending on their position within a word.
It should be noted that voiced fricatives like /ð/ are more common in word-medial or word-final position than matching voiced plosives like /d/ while the opposite takes place word-initially: words beginning with /ð/ are near non-existing while words beginning with /d/ are common. Northern-like orthographies take advantage of this fact by re-using one letter representations for initial voiced stops (such as <d> for /d/) and for non-initial fricatives (<d> for non-initial /ð/). For example, the Efenol word for 'decided', decendeded from Spanish "decidido", becomes the 10-letter long Western Efenol word "dethidhidh" in a western-like orthography but is mereley 7 letters long in Northern Efenol: "dezidid" despite the word having identical pronunciation in both varieties: /de.θi.ˈðið/. It should be noted that northern-like orthographies often look closer to Spanish while western-like orthographies typically have a more ideosyncratic look.
Both kinds of orthographies are intended to be unambiguous to read although stress isn't marked realiably in all cases. On the other hand, spelling is not fully predictable from pronunciation in either orthography family since some sounds are written differently depending on whether the phoneme is the result of lenition (or another form of consonant mutation) or not. For instance, the words ''ban'' ('they go', from Spanish "van") and ''pban'' ('(made) of bread', from Spanish "de pan") are spelled differently despite both being pronounced /ban/ since the /b/ in the latter is a lenited form of the /p/ in ''pan'' ('bread', from Spanish "pan").
In addition to western-like and northern-like orthographies, ''Hunzad'', a variety of Northern Efenol, has distinct orthography (with little commonalities to either group) devised by linguists who studied the dialect. However that orthography never caught on with Hunzad speakers themselves who'd typically use the usual Northern Efenol orthography instead.
====Common features of western and northern-like orthographies====
Some common features found in both kinds of orthographies include:
* Being based on the Latin alphabet, avoiding (for the most part) unusual pronunciations.
* Marking long vowels with a circumflex accent, e.g. <â> for the long version of <a>.
* Using digraphs with the letter <h> as their second element.
* Using the letter <c> for the phoneme /k/ even before /e/ and /i/ (Eastern Efenol's orthography being an exception to this).
* Using <cg>, <pb> and <td> to mark lenited <c>, <p> and <t>.
* Marking stress position through the same strategy: an acute accent is placed over the stressed vowel except when it's on the last syllable of a word or when the vowel already carries a diacritic.
The last point makes it possible to distinguish words like ''madher'' /ma.ˈðeɾ/ (wood) from ''mádher'' /ˈma.ðeɾ/ (mother) although it fails to determine whether a word like ''mîrchël'' (Wednesday) would be /miːɾ.ˈxɛl/ (as expected by a lack of acute accents) or /ˈmiːɾ.xɛl/ (with a missing acute accent over the <î> as it already carries a circumflex accent). Luckily, in the case of ''"mîrchel"'', both pronunciations are valid and synonymous.
====Western-like orthographies====
Western-like orthographies are used for the Western Efenol (the basis for Standard Efenol), North-Western Efenol and by some Central Efenol speakers (which may also choose to write in a northern-like orthography).
Key features of western-like orthographies include the usage of digraphs for most fricatives such as <ch> for /x/, <th> for /θ/ and <dh> for /ð/. Except for <r>, which is pronounced /r/ word-initially or /ɾ/ otherwise, letters and digraphs retain the same pronunciation regardless of their position within a word.
The following table shows the sound correspondences for letters and digraphs in these orthographies:
{| class="wikitable"
! Letter
! Pronunciation
! Notes
|-
| a
| /a/ [a]
| Also <á> if stressed and not in the final syllable.
|-
| â
| /aː/ [äː]
|
|-
| b
| /b/
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | bh
| /v/
| Represents a lenited < b > /b/.
|-
| /v/
| Word-finally, typically realized as [β] in Western and North-Western Efenol.
|-
| bw
| /v/
| Represents a lenited <pw> /p/ (descended from a Spanish /kw/).
Not used in North-Western Efenol.
|-
| c
| /k/
| Always represents a /k/ sound (other than in digraphs), unlike English or Spanish <c>.
|-
| ch
| /x/
|
|-
| chw
| /xw/, /x/
| Represents a mutated <pw> /p/ (descended from a Spanish /kw/).
Not used in North-Western Efenol. The pronunciations /xw/ and /x/ are in free
variation in Western and Central Efenol, with /xw/ being preferred in the former
and /x/ in the latter.
|-
| cg
| /g/
| Represents a lenited <c> /k/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or possessive,
in that case the /g/ sound is spelled as <g>.
|-
| d
| /d/
|
|-
| dh
| /ð/
|
|-
| dj
| /dʒ/
| Only found in North-Western Efenol.
|-
| rowspan="2" | e
| /e/
| Also <é> if stressed and not in the final syllable. Some Western Efenol speakers
realize the phoneme as [e̞] and merge it with /ɛ/.
|-
| /e̯/, /j/
| Non-syllabic pronunciation when next to another vowel. Pronounced as a non-syllabic
/e/ in North-Western Efenol and in some Western Efenol subdialects and as a /j/ or a
non-syllabic /i/ in most Western Efenol varieties (including Standard Efenol) and in
Central Efenol. May be written 'i' in Central Efenol.
|-
| ê
| /eː/
| Some Western Efenol speakers pronounce /eː/ as [e̞ː].
|-
| ë
| /ɛ/, /ə/
| /ɛ/ in Western and Central Efenol (may also be merged with /e/ into [e̞] in the former.
/ə/ in North-Western Efenol.
|-
| f
| /f/
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | g
| /g/
|
|-
| [ç]
| Word-finally in Western and North-Western Efenol. Other pronunciations may also be
found, including [ʝ], [x], [ɣ] or simply [g].
|-
| gh
| /ʔ/, Ø, /ɣ/
| Represents a lenited, lexeme-initial <g> /g/. Pronounced as either a glottal stop or as a
null phoneme (silent) in Western and North-Western Efenol and as a voiced velar
fricative /ɣ/ in Central Efenol.
|-
| h
| /h/
|
|-
| hb
| /b/
| Represents a word-final /b/ descended from a Spanish /mb/ that alternates with the
digraph <mm> /m/. Not used in North-Western Efenol.
|-
| hd
| /d/
| Represents a word-final /d/ descended from a Spanish /nd/ that alternates with the
digraph <nn> /n/. Not used in North-Western Efenol.
|-
| hg
| /g/
| Represents a word-final /g/ descended from a Spanish /ng/ that alternates with the
digraph <ng> /ŋ/ (or <nn> /n/ in Central Efenol). Not used in North-Western Efenol
|-
| rowspan="2" | i
| /i/
| Also <í> if stressed and not in the final syllable.
|-
| /j/
| An alternative to non-syllabic <e> in Central Efenol.
|-
| î
| /iː/
|
|-
| ij
| /yː/
| Orthographic equivalent to <ŷ>; preferred for long /y/ in Western and North-Western
Efenol; <ŷ> is preferred in Central Efenol.
|-
| j
| /ʒ/
| Only found in North-Western Efenol.
|-
| rowspan="2" | l
| /l/
|
|-
| /ʎ/
| In Western and North-Western Efenol when word-final and preceded by an /i/.
|-
| lh
| /ʎ/
|
|-
| lw
| /ɫ/, [ɬ], [ɮ]
| All three realizations are found in free variation in Western and North-Western Efenol
while the phoneme is absent from Central Efenol.
|-
| m
| /m/
|
|-
| mh
| /v/
| Represents a lenited <m> /m/
|-
| mm
| /m/
| Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /mb/.
|-
| n
| /n/
| May assimilate to adjacent consonants.
|-
| nn
| /n/
| Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /nd/. Central Efenol speakers who
merge /ŋ/ and /n/ may also use <nn> /n/ to represent a former Spanish /ng/.
|-
| ng
| /ŋ/
| Some Central Efenol speakers may merge it with /n/ or, more rarely, with /ɲ/.
|-
| ñ
| /ɲ/
| Only found in Central Efenol.
|-
| o
| /o/
| Also <ó> (not to be confused with <ò>) if stressed and not in the final syllable.
Pronounced as a true mid-vowel [o̞] in Central Efenol and in regional varieties of
Western Efenol which merge /o/ and /ɔ/ (it should be noted that, despite featuring such
a merger, North-Western Efenol keeps the upper-mid pronunciation [o]).
|-
| ô
| /oː/
| Mid [o̞ː] in Central Efenol and in Western varieties that merge /o/ and /ɔ/.
|-
| ò
| /ɔ/
| Only found in Western Efenol.
|-
| p
| /p/
|
|-
| pb
| /b/
| Represents a lenited <p> /p/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a
possessive, in that case the /b/ sound is spelled <b>.
|-
| ph
| /f/
| Represents a mutated <p> /p/.
|-
| pw
| /p/
| Represents a /p/ that descends from a Spanish /kw/. This distinction is relevant in
Western and Central Efenol as <pw> behaves different than <p> under consonant
mutation. In North-Western Efenol /p/ behaves in the same way regardless of its origin
and the digraph <pw> isn't used.
|-
| rowspan="2" | r
| /r/
| Word-initially. Most Western and North-Western Efenol speakers merge /r/ and /ʀ/
into the latter.
|-
| /ɾ/
| Non word-initially.
|-
| rh
| /ʀ/
| Some Central Efenol speakers merge /ʀ/ and /r/ into /r/. Those speakers may replace all
instances of <rh> with <r> (if word-initial) or <rr> (otherwise).
|-
| rr
| /r/
| Only used in Central Efenol for non word-initial /r/.
|-
| s
| /s/
|
|-
| sc
| /ʃ/
| Only used in North-Western Efenol.
|-
| se
| /ʃ/, /sj/
| Preceding a vowel. The phoneme /s/ palatalizes to /ʃ/ in North-Western Efenol and in
most Western varieties while the sequence is just interpreted as /sj/ in Central Efenol or
in other Western Efenol varieties.
|-
| sh
| /h/
| Represents a lenited <s> /s/.
|-
| she
| /ç/
| Represents a lenited <se> /ʃ/; see notes for <se>.
|-
| ss
| /z/
| Represents a mutated <s> /s/.
|-
| sse
| /ʒ/
| Represents a mutated <se> /ʃ/; see notes for <se>.
|-
| t
| /t/
|
|-
| tc
| /tʃ/, /ʃ/, /s/
| Represents the phoneme /tʃ/ in North-Western Efenol.
In Western Efenol, <tc> is used sparingly and may be pronounced as /ʃ/ or /s/.
In Central Efenol the digraph is replaced with the letter <s> /s/.
|-
| td
| /d/
| Represents a lenited <t> /d/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a
possessive, then the /d/ sound is spelled <d>.
|-
| th
| /θ/
|
|-
| u
| /u/
| Also <ú> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word.
|-
| û
| /uː/
|
|-
| v
| /v/
| Replaced with <bh> in word-final position.
|-
| w
| /w/
|
|-
| wh
| /vw/, /v/
| Represents a lenited <w> /w/. Read /vw/ in most forms of Western Efenol and as /v/
in Central Efenol, North-Western Efenol and in other Western Efenol varieties.
|-
| y
| /y/
| Also <ý> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word (although speakers are
particularly likely not to write the acute accent if the affected vowel is an <y>).
|-
| ŷ
| /yː/
| In Western and North-Western Efenol <ŷ> is often replaced with the digraph <ij>.
|-
| z
| /z/
| Many Central Efenol speakers merge /s/ and /z/ into /s/. Those speakers may rewrite
words with <z> in Standard Efenol with an <s>.
|}
With the exception of Central Efenol's <ñ> (considered a letter on its own, collated between <n> and <o>), letters with diacritics and digraphs aren't taken into account for collation purposes.
One noticeable feature of western-like orthographies and of Efenol as a whole is the usage of the interpunct or middle-dot <·>. This punctuation mark is used to separate articles from consonant-initial nouns: ''a'' (the, singular feminine definite article) + ''man'' (hand): ''a·mhan'' (the hand). North-Western Efenol also uses an interpunct for plural definite articles before vowel-initial nouns: ''ah'' (the, plural feminine definite article) + ''evich'' (bees): ''ah·evich''. Otherwise, contractions where the second element beings with a vowel are indicated with apostrophes: ''l'' (singular definite article) + ''avech'' (bee): ''l'avech''.
Apostrophes are also used to indicate the attributive/genitive case of nouns (typically expressed through lenition) when the initial consonant of the noun is invariable to lenition. For example, the attributive form of ''falth'' (silver) becomes'' 'falth'' (of silver, made of silver) despite keeping its pronunciation unchanged (compare ''cóver'', 'copper' vs the lenited form ''cgóver'', 'of copper, made of copper').


===Morphophonology===
===Morphophonology===
==Morphology==


'''''WIP'''''
W.I.P.


==Morphology==
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<!-- How do the words in your language look? How do you derive words from others? Do you have cases? Are verbs inflected? Do nouns differ from adjectives? Do adjectives differ from verbs? Etc. -->


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