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 ~ ə	father, sofa	Pronounced [ə] in post-tonic syllables, [a] elsewhere.
ai	ai	lie
b	b	bath
by	bʲ ~ bj	beauty
ch	tʃ	watch
d	d	dog
dy	dʲ ~ dj	add you
dz	dz	adze
dzy	dzʲ ~ dzj	adds you
e	ɛ	bet
ei	ɛi	bait
f	f	food
fy	fʲ ~ fj	few
g	ɡ	good
gy	ɡʲ ~ ɡj	gules
i	i, ɨ	machine, chicken	Pronounced [ɨ] in post-tonic 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	ɔi	point
p	p	span
py	pʲ ~ pj	spew
r	ɾ	battle
ry	ɾʲ ~ ɾj	medium
s	s	see
sh	ʃ	sheep
sy	sʲ ~ sj	pass you
t	t	stop
ts	ts	pits
tsy	tsʲ ~ tsj	pits you
ty	tʲ ~ tj	list you
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 phonemic consonants and 2 phonemic glides:

		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]
Glide		w				y [j]
Lateral				l		ly [ʎ]
Tap				r [ɾ]	ry [ɾʲ]

Vowels

Ravkan has five phonemic monophthongs:

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

Diphthongs

Ravkan has three diphthongs: ai [ai], ei [ɛi], and oi [ɔi].

Stress

Most Ravkan words are stressed on their penultimate syllable, although some are irregularly stressed. However, Ravkan words can only be stressed on one of the last three syllables of the word (the antepenult, the penult and the final). Furthermore, some suffixes move stress to the final or antepenultimate syllable. Some of the exceptions are as follows:

• The instrumental singular is stressed finally.
• The suffix -ost attracts stress, making it final.
• The word soldat has word-final stress.
• Any suffix of the shape -*VyV(C) leaves stress on the antepenultimate.
• The past tense forms leave stress in place. However, past tense forms ending in -uwaya shift stress to the antepenultimate, since it cannot fall before.