Kossian

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Center	Back
Close	ɪ i iː ʏ y yː		ʊ u uː
Close-mid	e eː		o oː
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a aː

Kossian has a distinction between 6 vowels /a e i o u y/ which can appear in a short and long form for a total of 12 phonemes. All vowels except /a/ show allophony in their short forms. /e i o u y/ are pronounced [e i o u y] in open syllables and [ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ ʏ] in closed syllables.

Kossian has 3 fronting diphthongs /aɪ̯ eɪ̯ oɪ̯/ and 3 backing diphthongs /aʊ̯ eʊ̯ oʊ̯/.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal	Laryngeal
Nasal	m mː	n nː	ŋː
Fricative	f v	s sː z	x ɣ	h
Plosive	p pː b bː	t tː d dː	k kː g gː
Approximant		l lː	j w
Flap / Tap / Trill		ɾ rː

Kossian has a distinction between 19 consonants. All coronal consonants (except /z/) as well as all non-coronal nasals and plosives can be geminated for a total of 32 phonemes. /n/ can be pronounced [n m ŋ] depending on the following plosives. /ng/ is commonly pronounced [ŋː] instead of [ŋg].

Stress is assigned to the penultimate syllable of the word stem. If the word stem contains only two syllables, the ultimate syllable is stressed instead. If the word stem contains only one syllable, the stress shifts onto the first syllable of any suffix to avoid initial stress. Foreign words usually retain their native stress.

Kossian syllables can consist of an onset, a nucleus and a coda. The onset and coda are optional elements. The nucleus is obligatory and must contain a vowel. Onsets can only contain short consonants. Only three consonants can be in a cluster. Voiced fricatives or plosives can't follow voiceless fricatives or plosives.

• Possible onsets are ...
  • any single consonant
  • any plosive or /f x/ + /r/
  • any non-coronal plosive or fricative + /l/
  • any consonant except /z ɣ h/ + /j/
  • any consonant except /v z h/ + /w/
  • /f x/ + /t/ (only word-initially)
  • /s/ + /p t k/ (+ /r/) (only word-initially)
• Possible nuclei are ...
  • any short monopthong
  • any long monophthong (obligatory in stressed open syllables)
  • any diphthong
• Possible codas are ...
  • any short nasal or short coronal consonant
  • any geminated consonant (only word-internally; the following syllable can't have an onset)
  • /n l r/ + /p t k s/

Orthography

Modern Standart Kossian (MSK) officially uses two alphabets: the Greek alphabet and the Latin alphabet (the latter was introduced after the Kingdom of Kossa was annexed by the Roman empire). The usage of the alphabets depends largely on the speaker, most of which favor the original Greek alphabet, and the situation since certain fields of employment (medicine, science, law etc.) traditionally use a certain alphabet.

Both alphabets are largely phonemaic, meaning that a certain letter or letter combination mostly represents a single phoneme. The names of the letters (which are never written out) were adopted from the Ancient Greeks and the Romans, respectively. The names of some letters of the Latin alphabet, namely those not used during Roman times, were imported from German after a German princess had married into the royal family of Kossa.

Greek alphabet

Letter	Pronunciation	Phoneme
Α α	[ˈal.pa]	/a/
Β β	[ˈbeː.ta]	/b/
Γ γ	[ˈɡam.ma]	/g/
Δ δ	[ˈdɛl.ta]	/d/
Ε ε	[eː psi.ˈlɔn]	/eː/
Ζ ζ	[ˈzeː.ta]	/z/
Η η	[ˈeː.ta]	/e/
Θ θ	[ˈteː.ta]	-
Ι ι	[ˈjoː.ta]	/i/ | /j/
Κ κ	[ˈkap.pa]	/k/
Λ λ	['lam.da]	/l/
Μ μ	[myː]	/m/
Ν ν	[nyː]	/n/
Ξ ξ	[ksiː]	/ks/
Ο ο	[oː mi.ˈkɾɔn]	/oː/
Π π	[piː]	/p/
Ρ ρ	[ɾoː]	/r/
Σ σ ς	[ˈsɪg.ma]	/s/
Τ τ	[taʊ̯]	/t/
Υ υ	[yː psi.ˈlɔn]	/y/ | /w/
Φ φ	[piː]	/f/
Χ χ	[kiː]	/x/
Ψ ψ	[psiː]	/ps/
Ω ω	[oː ˈmeː.ga]	/o/

• Θ θ is only used in loan words and pronounced like /t/
• Ξ ξ | Ψ ψ are only rarely used in Kossian and mostly appear in loan words

Greek digraphs

Digraph	Phoneme
ΑΥ αυ	/aʊ̯/
ΗΥ ηυ	/eʊ̯/
ΟΥ ου	/u/
ΩΥ ωυ	/oʊ̯/
γγ	/ŋː/
κγ	/gː/
Κτ κτ	/xt/
Πτ πτ	/ft/

• Any other geminated consonant is written as a double consonant (example: /nː/ is written νν)
• Κτ κτ | Πτ πτ are only used word-initially

Greek diacritical marks and additional signs

Sign	Phoneme
ᾼ ᾳ	/aɪ̯/
ῌ ῃ	/eɪ̯/
ῼ ῳ	/oɪ̯/
΄	/ː/
'	/h/

• Putting the acute accent onto any short vowel (except Η η | Ω ω) turns in into a long vowel
• Putting an apostrophe on a vowel signifies a preceding /h/; additionally, it is used in combination with preceding Φ φ | Χ χ to represent /v ɣ/

Latin alphabet

Letter	Pronunciation	Phone
A a	[aː]	[a]
B b	[beː]	[b]
C c	[keː]	[k]
D d	[deː]	[d]
E e	[eː]	[ɛ] / [e]
F f	[ɛf]	[f]
G g	[geː]	[g]
H h	[haː]	[h]
I i	[iː]	[i] / [j]
J j	[jɔt]	-
K k	[kaː]	-
L l	[ɛl]	[l]
M m	[ɛm]	[m]
N n	[ɛn]	[n] / [m] / [ŋ]
O o	[o:]	[ɔ] / [o]
P p	[peː]	[p]
Q q	[kuː]	-
R r	[ɛɾ]	[ɾ]
S s	[ɛs]	[s]
T t	[teː]	[t]
U u	[uː]	[u] / [v]
V v	[faʊ̯]	-
W w	[veː]	-
X x	[ɪks]	[ks]
Y y	[iː ˈgɾaɪ̯.ka]	[y]
Z z	[ˈ(d)zeː.ta]	[z]