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	beauty
ch	tʃ	watch
d	d	dog
dy	dʲ	add you
dz	dz	adze
dzy	dzʲ	adds you
e	e ~ ɛ	gate or bet
ei	ei ~ ɛi	bait
f	f	food
fy	fʲ	few
g	ɡ	good
gy	ɡʲ	gules
i	i	machine
j	dʒ	jog
k	k	skill
ky	kʲ	skew
l	l	left
ly	ʎ	million
m	m	man
my	mʲ	mule
n	n	no	Assimilates to a following velar consonant.
ny	ɲ	onion
o	o ~ ɔ, ə	lot or coat, sofa	Pronounced [ə] in final, post-tonic syllables, [ɔ] elsewhere. Exceptions are found in some compounds.
oi	oi ~ ɔi	point
p	p	span
py	pʲ	spew
r	ɾ	battle
ry	ɾʲ	medium
s	s	see
sh	ʃ	sheep
sy	sʲ	pass you
t	t	stop
ts	ts	pits
tsy	tsʲ	pits you
ty	tʲ	list you
u	u	rude
v	v	voice
vy	vʲ	view
w	w	wet
y	j	young
z	z	zone
zh	ʒ	casual
zy	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]

With the exception of the postalveolar /tʃ dʒ ʃ ʒ/, palatalized consonants are depalatalized when they appear word-finally and resurface in case of suffixation.

Vowels

Ravkan has five phonemic monophthongs:

	Front	Mid	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e [e ~ ɛ]		o [o ~ ɔ ~ ə]
Open		a [a ~ ə]

Diphthongs

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

Stress

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

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