Appendix:Fjerdan pronunciation
The Fjerdan language has 21 consonants, 9 vowels, and 2 glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ' | ʔ, ∅ | uh-oh, — | Not phonemic. Written between two subsequent vowels, where an epenthetic [ʔ] is pronounced, which for example distinguishes a'i [ɑʔi] from ai [aj]. Also used to write clitics, where it does not represent any sound. |
| a | ɑ | father | |
| ai | aj | lie | |
| 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. |
| 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 |
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 21 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 | 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 [aj].
Phonotactics
Some key rules for the phonetic realization of Fjerdan words include:
- Word-initial vowels are realized with an epenthetic glottal stop [ʔ] before them, which is not written in the romanization.
- Subsequent vowels are also pronounced with a medial epenthetic glottal stop, where vowel hiatus would otherwise occur. This glottal stop can co-occur with an apostrophe (') in the romanization, at least in some cases, in order to prevent ambiguity with diphthongs.