Súiⱥcúili phonology

Phonology

	Labial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar, Glottal
Nasal	/m/ 〈m〉	/n/ 〈n〉			/ŋ/ 〈ŋ〉
Stop	/pʰ/ 〈p〉, /b/ 〈b〉	/tʰ/ 〈t〉, /d/ 〈d〉			/kʰ/ 〈k〉, /g/ 〈g〉
Affricate	/pf/ 〈pf〉	/ts/ 〈ts〉	/tʃ/ 〈tʃ〉, /dʒ/ 〈j〉*
Fricative	/f/ 〈f〉, /v/ 〈v〉	/s/ 〈s〉, /z/ 〈sh〉	/ʃ/ 〈ʃ〉, /ʒ/ 〈j〉*		/h/ 〈h〉, /ɣ/ 〈gh〉
Tap		/ɾ/ 〈r〉
Approximant	/w/ 〈ú〉	/l/ 〈l〉		/j/ 〈í〉

* ʒ and dʒ are not distinct. Which one is used depends on the dialect.

Audio

Phonotactics

Syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C)(C)

Any single consonant can occur at the beginning of a syllable. Consonant clusters at the beginnings of syllables must have an obstruent (stop, fricative, affricate) followed by a liquid (/ɾ l/) or glide (/j w/). The clusters /ʃɾ/ and /tʃɾ/ are not possible. Nasals and /h/ cannot occur in syllable-initial clusters, and affricates can be followed by glides but not by /ɾ l/.

/h/, /j/, and /w/ can't occur at the ends of syllables. Any other single consonant can. Clusters at the ends of syllables must go in the following order, with at most one of each type:

1. /l/ or /ɾ/
2. a nasal or fricative
3. a stop

Affricates cannot form consonant clusters at the ends of syllables (but can appear by themselves there). If a syllable ends in a nasal-stop cluster, the two consonants must be at the same place of articulation; this restriction does not apply to nasal-stop clusters in the middles of words where they can be in different syllables.

Consonant clusters in the middles of morphemes must be a combination of a possible syllable coda and a possible syllable onset, and cannot contain more than two (rarely three) consonants.

There are no diphthongs in Súiⱥcúili. Two vowels may be next to each other without any intervening consonants; in that case, they're pronounced separately, with no glottal stop or other consonant between them.

/ɚ/ can only be a syllable nucleus. /ɾ/ and /l/ can be either syllabic or non-syllabic.

The sequences /ji/ and /wu/ are possible, and the consonants/clusters /s sj ʃ ʃj t tj tʃ tʃj/ are all distinct.

Allophony and sound variation

The choice between tense and lax /e/ and /i/ sounds is not phonemic and depends on the dialect. In Onceuponatimia, the tense variants ([e], [i]) are used at the ends of syllables and the lax variants ([ɛ], [ɪ]) are used in syllables ending in consonants. In Súiⱥcúil, the tense vowels are always used, except for a few dialects which use all lax vowels. Syllabification rules:

1. Syllabification must follow phonotactic rules
2. Syllable breaks at morpheme boundaries are preferred, except the adjective endings -ⱥ and -o don't count as morphemes (but -e does, even for type 2 adjectives)
3. Otherwise, as many consonants go in the onset of the following syllable as possible

In Súiⱥcúil, the vowel spelled 〈ⱥ〉 is pronounced /ɔ/; in Onceuponatimia, it's pronounced /ʌ/.

The consonant spelled 〈j〉 may be pronounced either /ʒ/ or /dʒ/, depending on the dialect.

In consonant clusters, the velar fricative in some dialects is pronounced /x/, and in others it makes the vowel breathy voiced.

/ɾ̩/ may be pronounced [r̩] or [ʀ̩], depending on the speaker.

(TODO determine which dialect does what)

Stress

Stress is somewhat predictable, and tends to be on the antepenultimate (third-to-last) syllable:

• If the root word is marked in the lexicon as having particular stress patterns, then the word has whichever stress pattern is indicated that has the same number of syllables in the suffixes as the current instance of the word. (E.g., ⱥhololinun is marked "ⱥholoLILun, ⱥHOLolil, ⱥHOLol", meaning that if the word has a two-syllable suffix, then it's stressed on the first syllable of the suffix, otherwise the HOL syllable is stressed.) If a word has a longer suffix than anything listed, then stress is assigned predictably.
• Prefixes and suffixes are counted when considering stress, unless otherwise specified in the lexicon or unless the word is a proper noun. Proper nouns keep stress on the same syllable no matter what affixes are added.
• If a word has one or two syllables, then stress is on the first syllable.
• If a word has at least three syllables, but there's no consonant between the antepenultimate and the penultimate syllable (that is, there's two vowels in a row), the penultimate syllable is stressed. (May be dialect dependent, TODO.)
• Otherwise, the antepenultimate syllable is stressed.

Timing

Timing is non-phonemic. Syllables are generally approximately evenly spaced, but with generally a longer space between words (except for certain combinations of words, like verb + to) and when there are more complex consonant clusters.

Foreign words

Words of foreign origin (including those from Earth) usually (but not always) keep an approximation of their original pronunciation, spelled in the Súiⱥcúili alphabet. Certain substitutions:

• Súiⱥcúili does not have falling diphthongs. The diphthongs /ai/ (as in Hawaii), /oi/ (as in oil), and /au/ (as in Kraut) become two separate syllables. The diphthongs /ei/ (as in eight) and /ou/ (as in though) have their second element eliminated. The diphthongs (in English) ar, er, ir, and or have their second element turned into r (a flap).
• The sounds /æ/ (as in æpple) and /ə/ (as in əbout) become a. The sound th becomes t or d. The sound ö (as in möchte) becomes ṛ; the sound ü (as in müde) becomes i. The sound ch (as in Bach) becomes gh. The English sound r at the beginnings of words becomes r; the vowel in her becomes ṛ.

If the word is a noun, the first vowel that is a, i, o, or u changes as follows:

• a and o get plus signs.
• u gets a circle.
• i stays dotted. (All i's should be dotted.)

If the word doesn't have one of these, a is added at the end.

If the word is a common noun, adjective, or verb, the ending is added without regard to the end of the original word (e.g., haiku becomes haicuun).