Nuktaq

Setting
Nutavik is the language of the Nutavik dwarves who number just over 1000 and live in the mountains of Mazarkhut. Nutavik is a language isolate, unrelated to any other language. Nutavik is a head-initial language that is strongly isolating. Word order is SVO.

Phonology
Nutavik has 22 consonants and three vowels. The consonant inventory is very symmetrical, distinguishing nasals, voiced and voiceless plosives, and voiced and voiceless fricatives at the labial, alveolar, velar and uvular points of articulation. The plosive consonants are always unaspirated, unlike in English. Nutavik has a basic three vowel system consisting of the vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/. When adjacent to a uvular consonant, /i/ and /u/ become allophonically lowered to [e] and [o] respectively, and this change is indicated in the orthography. Other than this the only case of significant allophony is that the plosive consonant /d/ may be realized as a tap [ɾ] intervocalically. Nutavik has no phonemic vowel length, stress or tone, and there are no diphthongs.

Consonants
The 22 consonants of Nutavik are listed below in the standard orthography, with IPA notation in brackets:

Vowels
Nutavik has the following three vowels: Note that /i/ and /u/ have allophones [e] and [o] respectively when adjacent to a uvular consonant.

Phonotactics
Nutavik words are subject to a number of strict phonotactic constraints. Words do not begin in a vowel or in a uvular consonant, and words do not end in a bilabial or labiodental consonant. Consonant clusters can occur word-initially and word medially but not word-finally. Consonant clusters do not exceed two consonants in length except when occurring across morpheme boundaries, in which case they can be three consonants in length. Vowel clusters are not permitted. Root words do not exceed three syllables in length. The structure of monosyllabic roots is C(C)V(C). The structure of disyllabic roots is C(C)VC(C)V(C), and the structure of trisyllabic roots is C(C)VC(C)VC(C)V(C). The only consonant clusters that can occur word-initially are as follows: /pl pʁ tʁ kl bl bʁ dʁ gl fl fʁ sl sʁ xl/. A large variety of consonant clusters can occur word-medially.

Stress
Stress is very weak. Stress is predictable, always falling on the penultimate syllable of a word.

Orthography
Nutavik is written using the Latin alphabet. The alphabet is completely transparent and so is easy to learn. The spelling of each consonant phoneme is shown in the table of consonants in the phonology section (see above). The alphabet has five vowels, pronounced as /a e i o u/ respectively.