User:Chrysophylax/Valian

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Phonetics and phonology

Spelling

Valian is written with the Latin script and has a very shallow orthography.

The following letters are used: a b d e g h i k l m n r o p r s t v y ä ë ü.

Notes

  • All vowel graphemes can be doubled to represent the long version of the vowel.
  • The consonants ⟨b d g⟩ represent the semi-voiced allophones ([b̥ d̥ g̥]) of the phonemes /p t k/ and occur only between vowels.

Consonants

Valian consonants
Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
plain palatalized
Nasal m n (nʲ) (ŋ)1
Plosive p t (tʲ) k
Fricative v s (sʲ) (x)2 h
Approximant l (lʲ)3 j
Trill r

Notes:

  1. [ŋ] only occurs as an allophone of [n] before [k], e.g. taankos [ˈtɑːŋg̥os̺].
  2. [x] is a word-final allophone of [h] (e.g. aagah 'wound' [ˈɑːg̥ɑx]).

There is only one series of plosives in Valian. The archiphonemes ||p t k|| have various realisations depending on the phonological context in which they surface. Usually unaspirated, they may become aspirated at the end of sentences and in pausa, e.g.,non-final päht [pæht] (‘stone’) → sentence-final [pæhtʰ]). The plosives are furthermore lightly voiced between vowels and after /n/ /m/ /l/, e.g., sede [ˈsʲed̥ʲeˑ] (‘path’).

Vowels

Valian vowel phonemes
Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
Close i iː y yː u uː
Mid e eː ø øː ɤ ɤː o oː
Open æ æː ɑ ɑː

Notes: Word- and sentence-final short vowels are often pronounced slightly longer than their non-final counterparts (e.g. salma 'faith' [ˈsɑlmɑˑ]).

Phonotactics

Morphology

Syntax