Appendix:Yulish pronunciation
The Shiväisith language has 18 consonants, 8 vowels with two lengths and 1 glide.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | father | |
| b | b | bell | |
| ch | tʃ | chime | |
| d | d | ding | |
| e | e | bell | |
| f | f | food | |
| g | g | good | |
| h | h | ham | |
| i | i | beet | |
| j | dʒ | job | This only appears in non-native words. |
| k | k | kkeep | |
| kh | x or χ | - | Like the ch of German Buch. |
| l | l | left | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n | no | Assimilates to a following velar consonant. |
| o | o | boat | |
| ö | ø | — | Like e pronounced with rounded lips. |
| p | p | pan | |
| r | ʀ | — | Trilled long and loud. |
| s | s | see | |
| sh | ʃ | sheep | |
| t | t | top | |
| u | u | rude | |
| ü | y | — | Like i pronounced with rounded lips. |
| v | v | voice | |
| w | w | wise | |
| y | j | yes | |
| z | z | zoo |
Phonetics
Yulish has a couple front rounded vowels, and a uvular trill that occurs frequently. Doubled vowels above are longer in duration than short vowels, but are otherwise identical in quality to short vowels. Stress is usually accompanied by lengthening of the vowel and followed by a sharp rise in intonation.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | (n [ɲ]) | (n [ŋ]) | (n [ɴ]) | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p [p] | t [t] | ch [tʃ] | k [k] | ||
| voiced | b [b] | d [d] | (j [dʒ]) | g [g] | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f [f] | s [s] | sh [ʃ] | kh [x~χ] | h [h] | |
| voiced | v [v] | z [z] | |||||
| Lateral | l [l] | ||||||
| Rhotic | r [ʀ] | ||||||
Notes:
- [ɲ], [ŋ], and [ɴ] are in parentheses because they are not phonemes, but allophones of /n/. The phoneme /n/ assimilates to a following velar, uvular, or possibly even palatal consonant.
- [dʒ] is in parentheses because it occurs only in words of foreign origin or names, e.g. Jojo [dʒoˈdʒo].
- [x ~ χ] occurs in borrowings, or words that come directly from Ghiscari.
Vowels
Yulish has 8 phonetically distinct vowels, seven of which can be long or short:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i [i], ii [iː], ü [y], üü [yː] | u [u], uu [uː] | |
| Mid | e [e], ee [eː], ö [ø], öö [øː] | a [ǝ] | o [o], oo [oː] |
| Open | a [a], aa [aː] |
Diphthongs
Yulish has at least one diphthong: oi [oi]. It may have others, but they haven't been discovered yet.