Classical Gallifreyan

Classification and Dialects
Classical Gallifreyan is the classical language of Gallifrey, belonging to the family of the Gallifreyan languages ultimately descended from Old High Gallifreyan, with the intermediate stage of Middle Gallifreyan. The time it was an actual spoken language is currently unknown; it was definitely spoken millennia after the death of Rassilon, and then slowly became only spoken by high-rank Time Lords and otherwise a literary written language. It forms however the basis for the orthography of later stages of the language.

When it was spoken, it is known to have had two main dialects: Capitolian, which spawned Late Gallifreyan, and Arcadic, which later spawned the separate language of Arcadian. Although other idioms spoken on Gallifrey are sometimes classified as dialects of Classical Gallifreyan, they are often mutually unintellegible, and are rather separate languages all descended from Old High Gallifreyan.

Consonants
Classical Gallifreyan has a restricted consonantal inventory, with only four places of articulations distinguished (by the time Classical Gallifreyan was spoken, the velars and uvulars of Middle Gallifreyan had become glottals; the glottals themselves of Middle Gallifreyan had disappeared, leaving vowel colouring).

A phone that is not shown here, not being phonemic, is [ʕ], which is often used to break up clusters of two or more vowels.

The stops tend to be tense, while fricatives are lightly aspirated as [ɸʰ βʱ θʰ ðʱ sʰ zʱ]

Vowels
In contrast with the consonants, Classical Gallifreyan has a very large vowel inventory, largely due to vowel colouring left mainly by coda /r/ and other phonemes, which expanded the previous inventory of ten vowels, with five qualities and a rounding opposition, of Middle Gallifreyan. They are listed below:

Not all those vowels are however equally common; /ø ɶ/ only appear in a handful of words.

The vowels transcribed as /æ̞ ɶ/ tend to be pronounced as [æ œ̞] in more conservative speech.

Rounded high vowels are often longer than the others. Moreover, all vowels are lengthened before voiced consonants.

Stress always falls on the first syllable; the stressed syllable may also be slightly nasalized.