The reading rules have been roughly described in one of the earliest posts, and now it's time to describe the phonological processes and other details present in the language.
First of all, it is worth noting that there are sounds that might seem identical to other ones. Thus, there are two 'u' sounds (u [ʊ] and ou [u], in addition to the quite similiar sound eu [ɯ], which sounds both like an 'i' and an 'u'), two 'e' sounds (e [e] and ai [æ ~ ɛ]), two 'sh' sounds (sj [ɕ] and sx [ʃ]), two 'l' sounds (l [ɫ] and lj [lʲ]), two 'ch' (tj [t͡ɕ], kj [c]) and two 'dj' (dj [d͡ʑ], gj [ɟ]) sounds, which makes the overall phonetic system quite complex.
Nevertheless, the difference between the 'identical' sounds must be observed, as different sounds sometimels yield different meanings, as is the case with English 'stuff' and 'staff', 'slit' and 'sleet'.
A short list of such 'paronyms' includes the following:
buna 'scene' and bouna 'bean',
kjeka 'doe' and tjeka 'Czech',
tila 'aim' and tilja 'line',
xugjen 'to count' and xudjen 'to hide',
graidjen 'to order' and gredjen 'to starve'.
As for the details of pronunciation, they are given below.
- The letter j not only makes the preceding consonant soft - it also makes the following vowel closer narrower and closer to the front. Thus, the word tjons 'dog' is pronounced [t͡ɕøns], and the word gjuka 'parable' sounds like ['ɟʏka].
- The letter j may in fact affect consonants that weren't listed in the first post. For example, þafjen 'to feel' and farbjen 'to colour' may be pronounced either as ['θafjen] and ['farbjen] or as ['θafʲen] and ['farbʲen], with the latter being the more preferable variant.
- The letter x has two pronunciations: it is [ħ] or [χ] at the end of closed syllables and [h] in all other cases, so xand 'hand' is [hand], but naxt 'night' is [naħt] or [naχt] ([ħ] is a voiceless pharyngeal consonant found in Arabic (ح) and some other languages, mainly Afro-Asiatic and North Caucasian). This letter is always pronounced as velar [x] before ou, e.g. xoun [xu:n] 'low'.
- The sound [n] becomes [ŋ] before g and k, like in other Germanic languages.
- The letter l, which is regularly pronounced as a 'dark L' ([ɫ]) is softened to [l] before front vowels, so the word lib 'life' sounds almost as if it where spelled *ljib.
- The vowel combination ai has two distinct pronouncations: it is [ɛ] before two or more consonants and [æ] in other cases. Thus, laisvext 'school subject' is pronounced ['ɫɛsveħt], xaim 'home' is [hæ:m], and aiz 'copper' is [æ:z].
- Old diphthongs (ai, eu, ou) are usually long in open syllables and in monosyllabic words ending in one consonant, so faik 'denial' tends to be pronounced [fæ:k], and eula 'baby' is [ɯ:la].
- Voiceless plosives (p, t, k) are aspirated and more tense than voiced plosives, a phenomenon similar to what is observed in other Germanic languages. Voiced plosives (b, d, g) are devoiced in the final position, but, unlike the corresponding sounds in German, they don't sound as aspirated and tense as the voiceless ones, so the words þat 'this' and þad 'here' really sound differently, the former being [θatʰ], and the latter [θat].
- Voiced plosives are not devoiced in the final position if they follow a nasal consonant. In this case, two consonants blend and yield a prenasalized stop. Thus, and 'end' is pronounced [an͜d], not *[ant].
- Syllabic sonorants are not uncommon. Thus, some words are pronounced with a sonorant as the nucleus of the syllable, e.g. fingr ['fɪŋgr̩] 'finger', regl ['regɫ̩] 'rule', sokn ['sɔkn̩] 'search'.
- The letter v has two pronunciations: [v] and [ɪ]. The former is used in most cases, while the latter is only used to transcribe Greek words with 'υ' or other non-native words with 'y', eg. fysika 'physics', krystal 'crystal', ryþm 'rhythm'.
Stress
The stress is typical for a Germanic language: in native words, it falls on the first syllable of the word for most nouns and on the first syllable of the root for verbs, adjective, participles and verbal nouns. In complex words, double stress is frequent, e.g. firdailfinal [ˌfɪrdɛɫfɪ'naɫ] 'quarter final'.
First of all, it is worth noting that there are sounds that might seem identical to other ones. Thus, there are two 'u' sounds (u [ʊ] and ou [u], in addition to the quite similiar sound eu [ɯ], which sounds both like an 'i' and an 'u'), two 'e' sounds (e [e] and ai [æ ~ ɛ]), two 'sh' sounds (sj [ɕ] and sx [ʃ]), two 'l' sounds (l [ɫ] and lj [lʲ]), two 'ch' (tj [t͡ɕ], kj [c]) and two 'dj' (dj [d͡ʑ], gj [ɟ]) sounds, which makes the overall phonetic system quite complex.
Nevertheless, the difference between the 'identical' sounds must be observed, as different sounds sometimels yield different meanings, as is the case with English 'stuff' and 'staff', 'slit' and 'sleet'.
A short list of such 'paronyms' includes the following:
buna 'scene' and bouna 'bean',
kjeka 'doe' and tjeka 'Czech',
tila 'aim' and tilja 'line',
xugjen 'to count' and xudjen 'to hide',
graidjen 'to order' and gredjen 'to starve'.
As for the details of pronunciation, they are given below.
- The letter j not only makes the preceding consonant soft - it also makes the following vowel closer narrower and closer to the front. Thus, the word tjons 'dog' is pronounced [t͡ɕøns], and the word gjuka 'parable' sounds like ['ɟʏka].
- The letter j may in fact affect consonants that weren't listed in the first post. For example, þafjen 'to feel' and farbjen 'to colour' may be pronounced either as ['θafjen] and ['farbjen] or as ['θafʲen] and ['farbʲen], with the latter being the more preferable variant.
- The letter x has two pronunciations: it is [ħ] or [χ] at the end of closed syllables and [h] in all other cases, so xand 'hand' is [hand], but naxt 'night' is [naħt] or [naχt] ([ħ] is a voiceless pharyngeal consonant found in Arabic (ح) and some other languages, mainly Afro-Asiatic and North Caucasian). This letter is always pronounced as velar [x] before ou, e.g. xoun [xu:n] 'low'.
- The sound [n] becomes [ŋ] before g and k, like in other Germanic languages.
- The letter l, which is regularly pronounced as a 'dark L' ([ɫ]) is softened to [l] before front vowels, so the word lib 'life' sounds almost as if it where spelled *ljib.
- The vowel combination ai has two distinct pronouncations: it is [ɛ] before two or more consonants and [æ] in other cases. Thus, laisvext 'school subject' is pronounced ['ɫɛsveħt], xaim 'home' is [hæ:m], and aiz 'copper' is [æ:z].
- Old diphthongs (ai, eu, ou) are usually long in open syllables and in monosyllabic words ending in one consonant, so faik 'denial' tends to be pronounced [fæ:k], and eula 'baby' is [ɯ:la].
- Voiceless plosives (p, t, k) are aspirated and more tense than voiced plosives, a phenomenon similar to what is observed in other Germanic languages. Voiced plosives (b, d, g) are devoiced in the final position, but, unlike the corresponding sounds in German, they don't sound as aspirated and tense as the voiceless ones, so the words þat 'this' and þad 'here' really sound differently, the former being [θatʰ], and the latter [θat].
- Voiced plosives are not devoiced in the final position if they follow a nasal consonant. In this case, two consonants blend and yield a prenasalized stop. Thus, and 'end' is pronounced [an͜d], not *[ant].
- Syllabic sonorants are not uncommon. Thus, some words are pronounced with a sonorant as the nucleus of the syllable, e.g. fingr ['fɪŋgr̩] 'finger', regl ['regɫ̩] 'rule', sokn ['sɔkn̩] 'search'.
- The letter v has two pronunciations: [v] and [ɪ]. The former is used in most cases, while the latter is only used to transcribe Greek words with 'υ' or other non-native words with 'y', eg. fysika 'physics', krystal 'crystal', ryþm 'rhythm'.
Stress
The stress is typical for a Germanic language: in native words, it falls on the first syllable of the word for most nouns and on the first syllable of the root for verbs, adjective, participles and verbal nouns. In complex words, double stress is frequent, e.g. firdailfinal [ˌfɪrdɛɫfɪ'naɫ] 'quarter final'.
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