Läd̛âng

General information
Lą̈ǐdâng̛ (pronounced [lāǐ̯ˈdâng]) is a language isolate spoken on an island 200mi (500km) of the southern most tip of Vietnam.

Phonology and orthography
Lą̈ǐdâng̛ has a fairly complex phonological system, especially for native speakers of most Indo-European languages. The vowel system is especially complicated as is shown below.

Consonants
There are twenty-three consonants; aspirated consonants are counted separate letters in their own right:

C c : [c] voiceless palatal plosive

C̛ c̛ : [cʰ] aspirated voiceless palatal plosive

D d : [d] voiced alveolar plosive

F f : [f] voiceless labio-dental fricative

G g : [g] voiced velar plosive

G̛ g̛ : [gʰ] aspirated voiced velar plosive

K k : [k] voiceless velar plosive

K̛ k̛ : [kʰ] aspirated voiceless velar plosive

L l : [l] alveolar lateral approximant

Ł ł : [ɫ] velarised alveolar lateral approximant

N n : [n] alveolar nasal

P p : [p] voiceless bilabial plosive

P̛ p̛ : [pʰ] aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive

S s : [s] voiceless alveolar sibilant

Š š : [ʃ] voiceless palato-alveolar fricative

Ŝ ŝ : [ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

Ś ś : [ʂ] voiceless retroflex sibilant

T t : [t] voiceless alveolar plosive

T̛ t̛ : [tʰ] aspirated voiceless alveolar plosive

W w : [w] voiced labio-velar approximant

Z z : [z] voiced alveolar fricative

Ž ž : [ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar fricative

Ẑ ẑ : [ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal fricative

Ź ź : [ʐ] voiced retroflex sibilant

The following eight digraphs alter the pronunciation of the individual letters, other digraphs do not alter their pronunciation:

CŁ cł : [ɬ] voiceless alveolar lateral fricative

DF df : [θ] voiceless dental fricative

GN gn : [ɲ] palatal nasal

G̛N g̛n : [gn] voiced velar plosive, alveolar nasal

KŁ kł : [ɬ] voiceless alveolar lateral fricative

NG ng : [ŋ] nasal velar

NG̛ ng̛ : [ng] alveolar nasal, voiced velar plosive

TF tf : [ð] voiced dental fricative

Vowels
Lą̈ǐdâng̛ is a tonal language, there are six "base" vowels and five tones. All base vowels can be iotated and three can be nasalised.

The six base vowels are:

A a : [a] open front unrounded vowel

E e : [ɛ] open-mid front unrounded vowel

I i : [i] close front unrounded vowel

O o : [ɔ] open-mid back rounded vowel

U u : [u] close back rounded vowel

Y y : [y] close front rounded vowel

Tones, nasal and iotated vowels are shown by accents, as are diphthongs. There are eight different diacritics used to show these vowel properties, they are:


 * Acute : ´
 * Circumflex : ^
 * Diaeresis : ¨
 * Grave : `
 * Háček : ˇ
 * Inverted apostrophe : ‘
 * Macron : ¯
 * Tilde : ˷
 * Ogonek : ˛

†accented vowel forms a diphthong with the proceeding vowel.

In addition to the "simple" accented vowels above, the tones can be combined with the three other accented vowels. A table of all of the possible "compound" vowels is available here.

Alphabet
There are twenty-nine letters in the Lą̈ǐdâng̛ alphabet: