Saithanic - Phonology
Profile
- Vowels: /a e i o u/ with phonological length distinction
- Long vowels are orthographically marked by doubling:
aa ee ii oo uu - Productive diphthongs: /ai au ei oa/
- Marginal prestige diphthong:
aein a few old teaching and title words - Consonants: /p b t d k g m n f v s z sh th kh h l r/
- Syllable structure:
(C)(C)V(V)(C)(C) - Emphasis: severe penultima; otherwise first syllable
- Sound character: dense, serious, closed, clearly coda-oriented
Vowel inventory
| Short | Long | Remark |
|---|---|---|
a | aa | often in basic words and codex forms |
e | ee | often in derivatives on -eth |
i | ii | often in adjectives on -in |
o | oo | often in institutional terms |
u | uu | especially in system and corpus nouns |
Diphthongs
| diphthong | Typical effect | Examples |
|---|---|---|
ai | taught, marked, often in discipline names | saith, kaiveth, skaivor |
au | difficult, formal, often in roles and institutions | drauketh, vaur, mnorvaur |
ei | classificatory, taxonomic | morkein, eirneth |
oa | archaic and ritualistic | thoar, skoarth (stylistic pattern shapes) |
ae | old prestige feature in titles and principle lexicon | thael, thaelor |
Consonant inventory
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Velar | Laryngal | Sonorants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
p b f v m | t d s z th n l r | k g kh | h sh | m n l r |
Notes:
thstands for a distinctive dental friction sound.khis a rough velar fricative sound.shis rarely word-final, but often in learned compounds.ris usually retained clearly and is not vocalized.
Typical syllable structure
- Monosyllabic basic forms are common:
saith,keth,mnor. - Two-syllable forms are the standard for technical words:
morketh,selthum,kaivor. - Three-syllable forms arise primarily through derivation and composition:
iskareth,iskarketh,kethselthum. - Word-final consonants are normal and stylistically even preferred.
Allowed clusters
Initial sound
sk-,st-,sp-vr-,kr-,gr-mn-,thr-,khl-
Inlaut
-kt-,-ld-,-rv--sk-,-thm-,-rth--mn-,-vk-,-rk-
Final sound
-th,-k,-r,-n,-m,-s-ld,-rv,-sk,-rth
Phonotactic rules
- Open final syllables are possible, but are significantly rarer in core lexemes than in the Veyatic languages.
- Hiatus is avoided; When composing, a silent or weakly spoken binding
eoften appears. - Three full consonants in the initial sound are considered atypical; complex triple sequences arise almost only at compositional boundaries.
- Long vowels are preferably in stressed syllables and are rarely completely final to the word.
- Diphthongs almost always carry the syllable nucleus and attract the main accent.
Prosody
- In definitions and legal formulas the rhythm is slow and blocky.
- Sentence endings are often closed hard on the final consonant.
- Ritual recitations stretch long vowels and diphthongs without softening the basic syllable structure.## Example words
| word | Structure | Remark |
|---|---|---|
saith | CVVC | prototypical base word with diphthong and final consonant |
thaelor | CVV.CVC | typical prestige title with marginal ae |
morketh | CVC.CVC | heavy two-syllable technical word |
kaivor | CVV.CVC | role-derived form |
selthum | CVC.CCVC | dense center block with lth |
norvain | CVC.CVVC | causal derivation with final diphthong |
iskareth | VC.CV.CVC | definitional teaching form |
mnorvaur | CCVC.CVVC | institutional compound with a heavy initial sound |
kethselthum | CVC.CVC.CCVC | learned compound with preserved internal clusters |