User:Elector Dark/Kti/Phonology

Vowels
Kti has six vowel qualities spread relatively evenly across the vowel space: it has two front, two central and two back vowel qualities. It does not contrast rounded and unrounded vowels, though most of its vowels have an innate roundedness feature.

Ktarh monophthongs distinguish three degrees of length; they can either be short, long or overlong. Short vowels are unmarked, long vowels take a macron (such as <ǣ>) and overlong vowels take a circumflex (such as <æ̂>). Some overlong vowels may also end up being written as, for example, ; such phonetically overlong vowels are in fact underlying sequences of a long and short vowel that have undergone coalescence.

Kti has five diphthongs that metrically count as a single long vowel.

There are also three triphthongs that metrically count as an overlong vowel.

Consonants
Kti has 12 cardinal consonants ( Sh, S, Z, Zh, K, T, D, H, M, N, R, ' ). They are distributed unevenly along five points of articulation, labial, alveolar, postalveolar, velar and glottal.

* These are allophonic variations of an underlying phoneme.

Allophony
The allophonic variations of consonants are far smaller than in vowels. The only consonants that have a variable pronounciation are /k/ and /x/.

Allophony of /k/
The realisation of /k/ as [k ~ kj] is an enviromental feature. [k] and [kj] are in complementary distribution before vowels.

/k/ is realised as [k] before /a/, /u/, /ɔ/ and /ɞ/ and consonants, while [kj] is seen only sometimes before /i/ and /ɛ/. In initial positions, [k] is always pronounced as such, and an analysis of [kj] as an allophone can be considered correct as [k] seems to be the underlying element and therefore the priviledged value.

Allophony of /x/
The realisation of /x/ is far more simple, as [h] is a simple allophonic equivalent of [x] as it occurs only in initial positions. Unlike [k] and [kj] which share one grapheme, [x] and [h] are differentiated in the orthography. Sometimes, when [x] is put instead of [h], it can be assumed that the previous word is linked with the current one via compounding, phrasing or some sort of derivation, therefore giving rise to certain minimal pairs that don't chage the meaning of one word but of a phrase; this phenomenon occurs only in very fast speech. The view that [h] is an allophone of /x/ is still held, though.

Phonotacics
Phonotactics of Kti is divided into syllable rules and combinatorics.

Syllables
Ktarh syllables have the following general structure:

Syllables sometimes tend to hoard consonants taken from previous syllables, thus sometimes reaching three initials. It should be noted that a post-vocalic glottal stop resets syllable rules, thus always starting a new syllable after it.

Stress
Prosodic stress is very syllable-dependant and there are relatively complex rules that are governed by syllable position and structure.

Stress is pretty regular in that it is generally found in the penultimate syllable unless something else happened. If the word is monosyllabilic, the stress is on the sole syllable. A syllable is counted as "light" if it has a short vowel, and "heavy" if it has a long vowel, diphthong or triphthong.

If a stressed light syllable is in between a stressed and an unstressed heavy syllable, the stress shifts to the heavy syllable.

If both a heavy penultimate and a heavy antepenultimate exist, the stress shifts to the antepenultimate.

If a heavy syllable is surrounded by two light syllables, one of which is stressed, the stress will always be on the first.

Combinatorics
Ktarh phonotactical combinatorics deals with combinations of vowels and consonant clusters. It deals with the conditions that must be met for the combination to be legal.

The rules are listed as such: Using these rules and the phonology, we can formulate the following combinations:
 * 1) "Z" and "Sh" cannot be next to any fricative but can be near other consonants
 * 2) "T" cannot be preceeded by a nasal
 * 3) "T" cannot be followed by any plosive except the glottal stop
 * 4) "D" can be followed by all consonants except alveolars
 * 5) "A" cannot be next to "Æ" except when either vowel is a part of a greater whole.
 * 6) Two of the same phoneme cannot be together in roots (this causes gemination)

/md/ /mk/ /mʔ/ /ms/ /mz/ /mʃ/ /mʒ/ /mx/ /mr/ /mn/ /nd/ /nk/ /nʔ/ /ns/ /nz/ /nʃ/ /nʒ/ /nx/ /nm/

/nr/ /st/ /sd/ /sk/ /sʔ/ /sʒ/ /sx/* /sm/ /sn/ /sr/ /zt/ /zd/ /zk/ /zʔ/ /zm/ /zn/ /zr/ /xt/ /xd/ /xk/ /xʔ/

/xs/ /xʒ/ /xm/ /xn/ /xr/ /rt/ /rd/ /rk/ /rʔ/ /rs/ /rʃ/ /rx/ /rm/ /rn/ /tʔ/ /ts/ /tz/ /tʃ/ /tʒ/ /tx/ /tm/ /tn/ /dʃ/

/dʒ/ /dn/ /dm/ /dr/

/ae/ /au/ /aɔ/ /aɛ/ /ua/ /uɛ/ /uɔ/ /uɞ/ /ɛi/ /iɛ/ /iu/ /iɔ/ /ɔa/ /ɔɛ/ /uɛ/ /uɔ/ /uɞ/ /ɞa/ /ɞɛ/ /ɞi/ /ɞɔ/ /ɞu/

Vowel combinations apply to long vowels as well.

* /sx/ is written as.