Phonemic inventory[]
The Taranvor Standard Dialect contains twenty-nine to thirty phonemes, comprised of nineteen or twenty consonants and ten vowels.
Consonants[]
There are six stops, two nasal stops, nine fricatives, one lateral fricative, one approximant, and one lateral approximant.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | t d | k g | q ɢ | ||||
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | x ɤ | ʁ | h | |
Lateral Fricative | ɬ | ||||||
Approximant | |||||||
Lateral Approximant | l |
The Taran consonants are usually inscribed as following:
Sound / t d k g q ɢ m n f v s z ʃ ʒ x ɤ h ɬ ʁ l /
Transliteration < t d k g q gh m n f v s z sh zh xh x h hl r l >
Dialects vary slightly in consonantal phonemic inventory. Most dialects outside the Taranvor lakes region have also lost the distinction between [ɢ] and [ʁ]. The frequent lenition of the uvular plosive to [ɢ] triggered an interpretation this and the historical uvular fricative were the same phoneme. The Port Karum dialect has begun to treat [ʧ] and [ʤ] as phonemes, and as with many dialects, contains dialectical variations on the voiced uvular fricative.
There are great dialectical variations of pronunciation with phonemic /ʁ/, which may be realized as [ʁ], [χ], [ɰ], [ʀ], and even [r] in word final positions. Several linguistic theories accounting for the variation have arisen.
The great variation of the realization of [ʁ] might have been caused by an original /ɹ/ contained an allophonic variant [r]. Over time, the [ɹ] was moved backward to a velar or uvular placement while the allophone [r] remained. Over time, the backed phoneme became a trill in all contexts, varying between [ʀ] and [r], or it took on frication and gained an [ʁ] allophone.
By another account, /ʁ/ has changed to remain distinct with other pharyngeal plosives. Historically the Taran language was supposed to contain both voiced and voiceless uvular fricative phonemes, but over time was reduced to a single phoneme which assimilated voicing by context. [χ] was realized before or after a consonant, [ʁ] elsewhere. The voiced counterpart of the phoneme was and still is often produced as a velar approximant [ɰ], and this pronunciation is constant in many dialects, such as the Port Karum dialect. In other situations, to contrast between [ɢ] and [ʁ], the latter became produced as the uvular trill [ʀ]. In the north near Shenwarii, whose language has [r], the coronal rhotic trill has been integrated as an allophone or the uvular rhotic.
Vowels[]
The vowel system consists of five basic vowels which have a long-short distinction for a total of ten vowels.
High i i: u u:
Mid e e: o o:
Low ɑ ɑ:
Sound / i i: e e: ɑ ɑ: u u: o o: /
Transliteration < i ii/ie e ae a aa u uu/uCC o ou >
Vowel variations occur in several regions, the most radical shifts occurring due to contact with the Shenvaan language in the south. These dialects frequently have added a diphthong [ɑɪ]. Other dialects retain the presence of the vowel [ʌ], which has been lost in most dialects, including the Standard Taranvor Dialect.
Some dialects always realize /ɑ/ as [ə], while other dialects like the Standard Taran Dialect only realize a [ə] in specific contexts of reduction.
Allophones[]
Allophonic variation depends upon dialect.