Soleani language

Soleani is a North Amalthean language spoken in Solea.

Phonology

Soleani has 19 consonant phonemes.

	Labial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal			n̪			ŋ
Stop	p		t̪ d̪			k g		ʔ
Fricative		v		z	ʝ	x ɣ	χ
Approximant						ɰ
Fricative trill				r̝ʷ
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l
Click			|

Allophony

Lax vowels

Lax vowels occur in closed (CVC) syllables.

Devoicing of word-initial fricatives

With the exception of those in the velar and uvular places of articulation, which have only one pronunciation, the fricatives /v z ʝ/ in Soleani become voiceless [f s ç] word-initially.

Lenition of verb endings

Verbs in Soleani typically end in a consonant. With some exception, word-final stops /p t̪ d̪ k g ʔ/ lenite to the fricatives [v θ ð x ɣ χ] in conjugated verbs. For example, the verb palek [palɛk] ('to think'), conjugates to paleka [palɛxa] in the simple present tense for human subjects, such as in the sentence "paleka gel" ('they think'). This verb-ending sound change applies somewhat irregularly to /l/ and /z/ as well, which become the voiceless and voiced lateral fricatives [ɬ] and [ɮ], respectively. Aspirated stops /pʰ t̪ʰ kʰ ʔʰ/ deaspirate. Note that none of these sound changes are reflected in the spelling of the conjugated verb.

Orthography

letters of the (latinized) soleani alphabet in their proper ordering in kapunaki

kapunaki	latin letter	pronunciation
	p	p
	t	t̪
	k	k
	th	ʔ
	d	d̪
	g	g
	q	ǀ
	l	l
	n	n̪
	ŋ	ŋ
	r	ɾ, ɾʷ, rʷ
	ɰ	ɰ
	v	v, f
	z	z, s
	j	ʝ, ç
	h	x
	gh	ɣ
	kh	χ
	š	ɬ
	a	a, æ
	á	aː
	e	ɛ
	é	ɛː
	i	i, ɪ
	í	iː
	o	ɤ, ɒ
	ó	ɤː
	u	u, ʌ
	ú	uː
	ai	ai
	ei	ɛi
	oi	ɤi
	ǎ	aʶ
	ǐ	iʶ
	ǔ	uʶ

other weird orthography things

' - aspiration (appears only word-finally)
'' - syntax used for double/long digraphs (thth -> th'')
ą - ogonek marked on the vowel to indicate non-standard stress of the syllable