Tengarsa: Phonology

[nyxelestia]

Consonants

Most come in pairs, there is one triad of them, and then a quartet of isolates. The pairs are unvoiced-voiced pairs. The isolates are often put together as an additional pair when paired-consonants can serve a grammatical function.

Pairs:

f , v
p , b
t , d
k , g
h , th
s , sh

Triad:

m , n , j
(m , n , ʤ)

Isolates:

r
l
y
w

The y and w are mostly present as wedges between strings of vowels and rarely make appearances as their own, separate consonants. On the rare occasions they do make appearances as their own independent consonants (particularly at the beginning of words), the w usually takes on a hw sounds (usually spelled wh in English). The y, mean while, will usually start to resemble more of a yj or yzh sound, or in IPA a slurring together of the y and a very soft ʒ.


The arrangement of consonants can streamline certain grammatical functions (i.e. the first consonant of adjectives often ‘switch off’ within a pair for different adjective strengths).

Vowels

There are short vowels, long ones, and diphthongs

Short:

a (æ)
aw (a)
e/eh (ɛ)
ih (ɪ)

Long:

i (iː)
o (o)
ai (aɪ)
u (uː)
ei (e)

Diphthongs:

ao (or aʊ)
ia (iæ)
ie (iɛ)
ea (ɛæ)
aie (aɪɛ)
ua (ua)
ue (uɛ)
ui (ui)


Vowel lengths are often used for grammatical purposes, especially in verbs.

Comments

[jissai1988.livejournal.com]

I forgot to ask what you mean by unvoiced. you mean the "unvoiced" as in korean? the opposite of the double pp? or the "u" on the end of the "masu" forms of verbs in japanese?

[nyxelestia.livejournal.com]

Unvoiced by IPA standards, which are basically the sounds themselves, i.e. if you say a 'g' sound you have to put your voice in it, not a 'k' sound - or, more accurately, when you whisper the sounds, the voiced ones start to sound like their unvoiced counterparts.