Appendix:Fjerdan pronunciation
The Fjerdan language has 22 consonants, 9 vowels, and 2 glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | ɑ | father | |
| ai | ai | lie | Transcribed as [aj] in some online sources, but as [ai] here for internal consistency on the wiki. |
| ä | æ | cat | |
| b | b | bother | |
| ch | tʃ | watch | |
| d | d | dog | |
| e | e ~ ǝ | bait, sofa | Pronounced [ǝ] in unstressed syllables, [e] elsewhere. |
| f | f | food | |
| g | ɡ | good | |
| h | h ~ ç | ham, huge | Pronounced [ç] after front vowels, [h] elsewhere. |
| hr | ʀ̥ | — | Voiceless equivalent of r. |
| hw | ʍ | what (certain pronunciations) | |
| hy | ç | huge | |
| i | i | machine | |
| j | dʒ | jog | |
| k | k | skill | |
| l | l | left | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n | no | Assimilates to a following velar consonant. |
| ng | ŋ | sing | |
| o | o | moat | |
| ö | ø | — | Like the ai in bait pronounced with rounded lips. |
| p | p | span | |
| r | ʀ | — | Pronounced roughly like the r in French rouge. |
| s | s | see | |
| sh | ʃ | sheep | |
| t | t | stop | |
| u | u | rude | |
| ü | y | — | Like the i in machine pronounced with rounded lips. |
| v | v | voice | |
| w | w | wet | |
| y | j | young | |
| zh | ʒ | casual | |
| ' | ∅, ʔ | it's, uh-oh | The apostrophe is used to write clitics, and as such does not represent any sound, but it sometimes coincides with an epenthetic [ʔ] when the application of the clitic results in two subsequent vowels, which for example distinguishes a'i [ɑʔi] from ai [ai]. |
Notes:
- Geminates: To pronounce a geminate consonant, simply pronounce it twice. They are written by doubling the consonant letter. In the case of digraphs, only the first letter of the digraph is doubled.
Phonetics
Consonants
Fjerdan has 22 phonemic consonants and 2 glides:
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ng [ŋ] | |||||
| Stop/Affricate | voiceless | p | t | ch [tʃ] | k | ([ʔ]) | ||
| voiced | b | d | j [dʒ] | ɡ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sh [ʃ] | hy [ç] | hw [ʍ] | h | |
| voiced | v | zh [ʒ] | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l | y [j] | |||||
| Trill | voiceless | hr [ʀ̥] | ||||||
| voiced | r [ʀ] | |||||||
Vowels
Fjerdan has 8 phonemic monophthongal vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||
| Close | i | ü [y] | u | |
| Mid | e | ö [ø] | (e [ǝ]) | o |
| Open | ä [æ] | a [ɑ] | ||
Diphthongs
The Fjerdan language has the diphthong ai [ai].
Phonotactics
Vowel sequences are broken up by an epenthetic glottal stop [ʔ], where vowel hiatus would otherwise occur. This applies both within words (e.g. for clitics) and across word boundaries.