Semberek

General information
Semberek is a small family of languages spoken in the Aegic desert on the planet Halonia by escaped human slaves. The two most populous dialects are Sembare (~5,000 speakers) and Hrilin (~12,000). This article will mostly refer to Sembare; while less populous, the Sembare dialect has greater prestige.?

Consonants
Items in bold are phonemes only in Sembare, while items with italics are only phonemes in Hrilin.


 * The sound denoted by 'x' in Sembare is more accurately thought of as the pharyngealization of the following vowel; e.g. axa = [aa̰], not [aɦa].

Vowels
As well as the tense/lax distinction, Hrilin also has long/short vowel distinctions. In both dialects, the tense/lax vowels are coupled and considered related sounds, perhaps even allophones, but their distribution is not entirely predictable; there is some free variation.

Alphabet
Semberek is written in a cursive, top-down left-right abugida. Interestingly, the direction of the consonants is unimportant; any sound can be written 'backwards,' according to which letter preceeds it (the direction of the first letter in the word is up to writer preference). An English counterpart to this system would not merely be to write letters upside-down, but also to have them hanging under the baseline of the writing.?

The romanized script is visible in the phonemic inventory charts above.

Phonotactics
Semberek allows syllabic nasals, and consonant clusters.