Appendix:Ravkan pronunciation

Ravkan Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary, Orthography, Dialogue

Ravkan has 38 consonants, 8 vowels and 2 glides.

Standard Romanization

Letter	IPA	English example	Notes
a	a	father
ai	aj	lie
b	b	bath
by	bj ~ bʲ	beauty
ch	tʃ	watch
d	d	dog
dy	dj ~ dʲ	dew (British English)	Always pronounced with a y sound following, unlike American pronunciations with yod-dropping.
dz	dz	adze
dzy	dzj ~ dzʲ	adds you
e	ɛ	bet
ei	ɛj	bait
f	f	food
fy	fj ~ fʲ	few
g	ɡ	good
gh	ɣ	—	Roughly like French r in rouge or like Spanish g in lago.
ghy	ɣj ~ ɣʲ	—	Roughly like French ri in Marielle.
gy	ɡj ~ ɡʲ	gules
i	i, ɨ	machine, chicken	Pronounced [ɨ] in unstressed syllables, [i] elsewhere.
j	dʒ	jog
k	k	skill
ky	kj ~ kʲ	skew
l	l	left
ly	ʎ	million
m	m	man
my	mj ~ mʲ	mule
n	n	no	Assimilates to a following velar consonant.
ny	ɲ	onion
o	ɔ	lot
oi	ɔj	point
p	p	span
py	pj ~ pʲ	spew
r	ɾ	battle
ry	ɾj ~ ɾʲ	medium
s	s	see
sh	ʃ	sheep
sy	sj ~ sʲ	sue (British English)	Always pronounced with a y sound following, unlike American pronunciations with yod-dropping.
t	t	stop
ts	ts	pits
tsy	tsj ~ tsʲ	pits you
ty	tj ~ tʲ	stew (British English)	Always pronounced with a y sound following, unlike American pronunciations with yod-dropping.
u	u	rude
v	v	voice
vy	vj ~ vʲ	view
w	w	wet
y	j	young
z	z	zone
zh	ʒ	casual
zy	zj ~ zʲ	buzz you

Phonetics

Consonants

Ravkan has 38 phonemically distinct consonants:

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar
		plain	palatalized	plain	palatalized		plain	palatalized
Nasal		m	my [mʲ]	n		ny [ɲ]	(n [ŋ])
Stop	voiceless	p	py [pʲ]	t	ty [tʲ]		k	ky [kʲ]
	voiced	b	by [bʲ]	d	dy [dʲ]		g	gy [ɡʲ]
Affricate	voiceless			ts	tsy [tsʲ]	ch [tʃ]
	voiced			dz	dzy [dzʲ]	j [dʒ]
Fricative	voiceless	f	fy [fʲ]	s	sy [sʲ]	sh [ʃ]
	voiced	v	vy [vʲ]	z	zy [zʲ]	zh [ʒ]	gh [ɣ]	ghy [ɣʲ]
Glide		w				y [j]
Lateral				l		ly [ʎ]
Tap				r [ɾ]	ry [ɾʲ]

Vowels

Ravkan has six phonemically distinct monophthongal vowels:

	Front	Mid	Back
Close	i [i]	(i [ɨ])	u
Mid	e [ɛ]		o [ɔ]
Open		a

Diphthongs

Ravkan has three diphthongs: ai [aj], ei [ɛj], and oi [ɔj].