Late Gallifreyan

Late Gallifreyan is a language spoken by the Gallifreyans, including the Time Lords, on Gallifrey, and in particular in the Capitol.

Classification and Dialects
Late Gallifreyan belongs to the family of the Gallifreyan languages spoken across Galifrey, and ultimately derived from Old High Gallifreyan. Specifically, it is one of the two languages born from Classical Gallifreyan (itself derived from Old High Gallifreyan through Middle Gallifreyan), the other being Arcadic, spoken as a vernacular in Arcadia.

Late Gallifreyan is mainly spoken as a vernacular in the Capitol on Gallifrey in the last period of dwelling of the Time Lords on the planet until the Battle with the Daleks, with Classical Gallifreyan serving mainly as a literary and formal language, only rarely spoken colloquially and mostly by high-rank Time Lords.

Consonants

 * 1) When at the start of a stressed syllable, all fricatives (except the pharyngeal) become the nasals /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ and /ɴ/.
 * 2) /x/ has, particularly in lower-class speech, a /ç/ allophone before /i/ and /y/.
 * 3) Contrary to Classical Gallifreyan, consonants cannot be geminated and have no voiceless/voiced distinction.
 * 4) /ɬ/ and /ɫ/ are in free variation with /ɮ/ and /ʟ/ respectively.
 * 5) The pharyngeal /ʕ/ is often elided, especially in unstressed syllable.

Vowels

 * 1) All vowels can be long or short; sometimes, long schwas are shortened.
 * 2) /ɯ/ and /u/ do not have a short variant.
 * 3) Late Gallifreyan marks stress by nasalizing the vowel; the stressed syllable is usually the penultimate.
 * 4) Before /q/ and /r/, mid vowels become mid-low.
 * 5) Back mid vowels have an ample range of realizations, spanning from a high quality to low-mid.
 * 6) All vowels can have three modalities: modal, breathy and creaky.

Phonotactics
Late Gallifreyans, contrary to Classical Gallifreyan, does not allow syllables with consonantal codes; hence, only two types of syllable are allowed, the scheme being (C)V.

Writing System
Late Gallifreyan, like Classical and Middle Gallifreyan, is written in the Gallifreyan script, and much more often in the cursive form than in the two ancestor languages.

Being Classical Gallifreyan the literary language, the orthography is very conservative and usually based off the Classical orthography; although significant variation exists between speakers, the distinct morphemes are written the way they would be written in Classical Gallifreyan.

Because of the vowel root system underlying Gallifreyan morphology, spelling of the vowels requires knowledge about the etymology of words, while writing of the consonants requires knowledge of the grammar. More detail will be given in the specific sections.

Grammar
The most notable features that underlies both Classical and Late Gallifreyan morphology is the presence of a vowel root system, meaning that while vowel signify the lexeme, consonants are inserted between them to express grammatical categories, much like Semitic languages on Earth.

Late Gallifreyan roots more often include three consonants, but many also only have two, especially when directly inherited from Classical Gallifreyan.

Nouns
Late Gallifreyan nouns normally inflect according to tense, space and case. Nouns in dictionaries and examples are usually shown in the past earthly genitive form, as it makes it possible to completely determine a noun’s declension on its own.
 * The tenses are three: present (the default form of the noun), past (signifying "something that was X", with X being a past state of the designed entity) and future (signifying "something that will be X", with X being a future state of the designed entity). Contrary to Classical Gallifreyan, no aorist tense exists, and it is substituted by the present.
 * The spaces are two, earthly (signifying X is in contact with the ground of any planet or star) and celestial (when X is not connected to the ground).
 * The Classical Gallifreyan 13-case system is simplified to six: accusative (indicating the direct object and rarely the indirect object, which is usually otherwise expressed through prepositions); genitive (indicating the possessor, but rarely a cause when coupled with a verb in flowery language); instrumental (indicating both the instrument and the physical location); nominative (indicating the subject), vocative (acting as a true vocative when standing alone, and meaning "with" like a comitative when within a sentence) and ablative (signifying the source).

Time-space marking
Time and space are marked by a single inflectional infix between the first two vowels of the root. As a rule, the present is marked by labials, the past is marked by a coronal, and the future by liquids (a system inherited from Classical Gallifreyan), while celestial forms are marked by fricativization (derived from Classical geminates). As shown, the future has no space difference.

All upper case letters represent variable phonemes, whose surfacing form depends on the surrounding vowels and etymology; the rules for choosing the specific consonant can be very complex, and also sometimes unpredictable.

As a guideline:

/P/ becomes: /L/ becomes:
 * /pʰ/ when aspiration-conditioned, i.e. when following a historical back non-high vowel (Classical /ɤ o ʌ ɔ ɑ ɒ/). These vowels surface in Late Gallifreyan as /ʌ o a ɒ/. The first two can be recognized as aspiration-conditioning if they are not raised to a high vowel when undergoing lengthening throughout the inflection of the word; on the other hand, the status of the last two can only be ascertained by looking at the root's etymology, which can only be known for certain by looking at the word's spelling. As a rule, very few instances of /ɒ/ are aspiration-conditioning, while more of /a/ are, especially when derived by a previous Middle Gallifreyan abstract noun marker (and thus abounding in abstract nouns), even though this latter regularity is usually useless in determining the time-space morpheme.
 * /pˠ/ when velar-conditioned, i.e. when following a historical back high vowel (Classical /ɯ u/). These vowels always surface in Late Gallifreyan as /ʌ o/, and can be recognized as velar-conditioning if an inflected form of the word (normally the future when determining the time-space morpheme) wherein they are lengthened raises them to high vowels.
 * /pʲ/ when palatal-conditioned, i.e. when following a historical high front vowel (Classical /i/ and /y/). These vowels surface in Late Gallifreyan as /e ø/, and can be recognized as palatal-conditioning with the exact same criterion as in velar-conditioning.
 * /p/ in all other cases (unconditioned).
 * /ɬ/ when front-conditioned, i.e. when followed by a historical front vowel (Classical /i y e ø ɛ œ a ɶ/). These surface in Late Gallifreyan as /i y e ø a ɒ/. While /e ø/ are always unquestionably front-conditioning, /i y/ only are if they appear as lengthened and inflection causes them to be shortened to mid vowels. /a/ is often front-conditioning (and it depends on etymology), while /ɒ/ rarely is.
 * /l/ when central-conditioned, i.e. when followed by a historical central vowel (Classical /ɨ ʉ ə ɵ ɐ ɞ/). These surface in Late Gallifreyan as /i y ə ɒ/; /i y/ are not central-conditioning only if they can be determined to be front-conditioning; the latter two, on the other hand, are respectively always and almost always central-conditioning.