Appendix:Indojisnen pronunciation

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The Indojisnen language has 30 consonants, 13 vowels, and 2 glides.

Standard Romanization

Letter IPA English example Notes
' ʔ uh-oh
a a father
b b bog
ch chalk
d d dog
dh ð than
e ɛ get
ew eu Atreyu
ey e bait
f f food
g g good
gh ʀ Pronounced like the r in French rouge.
h h ham This sound is always pronounced, except when it occurs in the digraphs ch, dh, gh, kh, sh, th and zh.
i i machine
j joke
k kite
kh x loch (Scottish English) Pronounced like the ch in German Bach.
l l left
ly ʎ million
m m man
n n no
ng ŋ sing Can occur at the beginning of a word.
ngg ŋg anger
ny ɲ onion Pronounced like the ñ in Spanish niña.
o ɔ cauɡht
ow o coat
oy oi boy
p pike
q kʰ (< *q) kite This is an older consonant of Indojisnen, and is now pronounced just like k, in all places where it occurs.
qg g (< *ɢ) good This is an older consonant of Indojisnen, and is now pronounced just like g, in all places where it occurs.
r ɾ battle Pronounced like the r in Spanish pero.
s s see
sh ʃ sheep
t take
th θ think
u u rude
v v voice
w w wet
y j yawn
z z zoo
zh ʒ azure

Notes:

  • Other Diphthongs: Those diphthongs not listed above are pronounced as vowel sequences, and their pronunciation should be clear from the spelling. Some examples are as follows: ai, ui, ei and oi.
  • Doubled Consonants: Doubled consonants are pronounced just like their singleton counterparts, but are held for twice as long.

Phonetics

Consonants

Vowels

Stress

Words are stressed uniformly on the first syllable of the word, where the first two syllables are short, or where the first syllable is heavy. If the first syllable is short and the second heavy, stress will be on the second syllable of the word. Importantly, however, the final consonant of the word is extrametrical.

Phonotactics

  • All content words will be at least two morae long. This means that a content word that is one syllable long must either end in a consonant or have a diphthong (or what was once a diphthong, meaning that a word with simply e or o as its vowel is a licit content word). A maximum nucleus will contain a diphthong and one coda consonant. Indojisnen only allows a small set of sounds to occur word-finally. A word may end in a, i, u, t, k or n. Exceptions are made for words ending in e or o that were originally the sequences ai and au. A word-internal syllable, though, may end in just about any consonant or vowel. Native onsets are restricted to a single consonant, though borrowing has introduced polyconsonantal onsets (in addition to foreign coda consonants and consonant clusters).
  • A nasal consonant (n, ny, ng, or m) will assimilate totally in place to a following consonant. Similarly, a fricative will assimilate to a preceding (but not to a following) nasal in manner, meaning that a cluster like ms will actually become nt.
  • A stop or fricative will devoice when occurring next to a voiceless stop or fricative.
  • Outside of the first two syllables, diphthongs simplified radically over the years. In syllables outside of the first two, diphthongs simplified in the following ways: oy became ey; eu became ow; ia, io, ie became a, o and e, respectively, but caused palatalization of the previous consonant; ua, uo and ue became a, o and e respectively.
  • Word-finally, e and o raise to i and u, respectively. They return to their original qualities when a suffix is added.
  • When occurring outside of the first two syllables, d becomes r in between two vowels.
  • When occurring outside of the first two syllables, nasal-voiced stop sequences reduce to simply a nasal. Thus, mb, nd, nj and nng become m, n, ny and ng, respectively.
  • The consonant y disappeared before the vowel i, as did ly when preceded by a or u, resulting in VV clusters. This sound change is blocked if lyi is preceded by a two vowel sequence. Additionally, sequences of yiV were simplified to yV. These changes occurred after the simplification of diphthongs outside of the first two syllables of the word.
  • When affixation would produce a triconsonantal cluster, the final consonant of the word to which the suffix has been added is deleted (hence indojin + -snen = indojisnen).
  • When two stops occur consecutively, the first assimilates in place totally to the second. However, bear in mind that a stop will devoice next to another. Thus, a consonant cluster like tg will actually be pronounced kk.