Ζιτάι

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open		a

Ζιτάι has a very standart vowel system of /a e i o u/. Additionally, it uses the sound [ɛ] and [ɔ] because of a process called metaphony.

Stressed, word-final high vowels /i/ and /u/ can raise preceding front or back vowels - this process is called metaphony.

• /a/ before /i/ is changed to [ɛ]
• /a/ before /u/ is changed to [ɔ]
• /e/ before /i/ is changed to [i]
• /o/ before /u/ is changed to [u]

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar
Nasal	m	n	ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d	k
Fricative		z
Liquids		r l

All consonants can be geminat

/z/ is devoiced to [s] after a voiceless plosive.

The voiceless plosives are changed to voiceless fricatives (/p/ to [f], /t/ to [s] and /k/ to [x]) before another voiceless plosive.

Stress

In general, all syllables could be stressed. However, the majority of words is stressed on the last syllable.

Orthography

Alphabet

Ζιτάι uses the Greek alphabet; albeit, it only needs 18 letters (out of the 24).

Greek Letter	Romanization	Name	Primary sound	Secondary sound
Α α	A a	΄Αλπα ['alpa]	[a]	-
Β β	B b	Βέτα ['beta]	[b]	-
Γ γ	G g	Kάμμα ['kamma]	[ŋ]	-
Δ δ	D d	Δέλτα ['delta]	[d]	-
Ε ε	E e	Έπζιλον ['epsilon]	[e]	-
Ζ ζ	Z z	Ζέτα ['zeta]	[z]	[s]
Η η	E e	΄Ετα ['eta]	[ɛ]	-
Ι ι	I i	Ιότα [i'ota]	[i]	-
Κ κ	K k	Κάππα ['kappa]	[k]	[x]
Λ λ	L l	Λάνδα ['landa]	[l]	-
Μ μ	M m	Μι [mi]	[m]	-
Ν ν	N n	Νι [ni]	[n]	-
Ο ο	O o	Όμικρον ['omikron]	[o]	-
Π π	P p	Πι [pi]	[p]	[f]
Ρ ρ	R r	Ρο [ro]	[r]	-
Τ τ	T t	Τω [tɔ]	[t]	[s]
Υ υ	U u	΄Ιπζιλον ['ipsilon]	[u]	-
Ω ω	O o	Ομέγα [o'mega]	[ɔ]	-

Most letters are truely phonetic - which means that they are always pronounced in just one way. Some letters, however, have a second sound they can represent in certain positions.

• The letter Γ γ represents the sound [ŋ] in the end of a syllable
• The letter Ζ ζ represents the sound [s] in devoicing environments (after voiceless plosives)
• The letter Κ κ represents the sound [x] in dissimilating environments (before another non-velar voiceless plosive)
• The letter Π π represents the sound [f] in dissimilating environments (before another non-bilabial voiceless plosive)
• The letter Τ τ represents the sound [s] in dissimilating environments (before another non-alveolar voiceless plosive)

Diacritics

Ζιτάι only uses the acute accent to indicate the primary stress of a word. Since words are usually stressed on the last syllable, the accent is only used when the stress is NOT on the last syllable.