Red Laqi language/Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Alveolopalatal	Retroflex	Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.			plain	lab.	plain	lab.		plain	lab.
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	voiceless	p		t							kʷ	q	qʷ		ʔ	ʔʷ
	voiced	b		d							gʷ
	ejective	p'	pʷ'	t'	tʷ'						kʷ'
Affricate	voiceless			t͡s	t͡sʷ	t͡ʃ			t͡ʂ
	voiced			d͡z	d͡zʷ	d͡ʒ
	ejective			t͡s'		t͡ʃ'			t͡ʂ'
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	ɬ	ʃ	ʃʷ	ɕ	ʂ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	ħ
	voiced			z	ɮ	ʒ	ʒʷ	ʑ	ʐ	ɣ		ʁ	ʁʷ
	ejective				ɬ'	ʃ'	ʃʷ'
Approximant								j			w
Trill				r

Vowels

	Central
Close-mid	ə
Open	ä äː

Red Laqi's vowel system highly reduced, especially in comparison with its extensive consonant inventory. Correlations with related varieties suggests that the labialized consonants derive from ancestral Consonant-Back Vowel syllables, with the roundness converted into labialization. Similarly, the broad range of palatalized consonants derive from ancestral Consonant-Front Vowel syllables.

Depending on the subvariety, Red Laqi's three remaining vowel phonemes are either interpreted as above, two ranks in which there is a distinction between long and short in the Open rank, or as below, of three ranks.

	Central
Close-mid	ə
Open-mid	ɜ
Open	ä

This latter interpretation is the source of Red Laqi's orthographic style, despite the former interpretation reflecting a more common pronunciation as well as longstanding morphological patterns (i.e. two e vowels combining to form a).

Orthography

Character		Phoneme	Examples
A a		/äː/	aban "hole"
B b		/b/	be "a lot (of)"
C	C c	/t͡s/	cage "rib", cy "body hair"
	C° c°	/t͡sʷ/	c°y "ox"
	C' c'	/t͡s'/	c'yfy "person"
	Ć ć	/t͡ʃ/	ćefy "cheerful, pleased"
	Ć' ć'	/t͡ʃ'/	ć'ymafe "winter", ćase "late", ćyg°e "land"
	Ĉ ĉ	/t͡ʂ/	ĉy'e "cold"
	Ĉ' ĉ'	/t͡ʂ'/	ĉyfe "debt"
D	D d	/d/	dedźe "bitter"
	Dz dz	/d͡z/	dzeue "bag", dze "combat, war"
	Dz° dz°	/d͡zʷ/	ḥandz°e "rick, 1.208 m3"
	Dź dź	/d͡ʒ/	dźane "dress, robe, shirt", łamydź "bridge"
E e		/a/	'eneẑ, neneẑ "grandmother"
F f		/f/	fyžy "white"
G	G g	/ɣ/	gyć'yġ "laundry", ge "gonad"
	G° g°	/gʷ/	g°y "heart"
	Ġ ġ	/ʁ/	ġathe "spring", -ġe "-ity, -ness"
	Ġ° ġ°	/ʁʷ/	ġ°yneġ°y "neighbour"
H	H h	/x/	-he "-s (plural marker)"
	Ḥ ḥ	/ħ/	ḥe "dog"
I i		/j/	iai "theirs", iat'e "dirt"
K	K° k°	/kʷ/	k°y "cart"
	K°' k°'	/kʷ'/	k°'akle "strong", -k°'e "-er"
L	L l	/ɮ/	ly "meat"
	Ł ł	/ɬ/	łaše "weak"
	Ł' ł'	/ɬ'/	ł'y "man"
M m		/m/	maze "moon", mepy "sheep"
N n		/n/	ne "eye", ny "mother"
P	P p	/p/	plyžy "red" paie "for, in order to"
	P' p'	/p'/	p'e "bed"
	P°'	/pʷ'/	p°'yr "apprentice"
Q	Q q	/q/	qek°'eḥyn "to stroll, roam" maq "voice"
	Q° q°	/qʷ/	q°yŝe "mountain", q°e "-son (patronymic)"
R r		/r/	rezeġen "to become content"
S	S s	/s/	se "I, me", seśh°e "sabre"
	Ś ś	/ʃ/	śy "horse, brother"
	Ś' ś'	/ʃ'/	ś'yn "to do"
	Ś° ś°	/ʃʷ/	ś°y- "you all (imperative plural marker)"
	Ś°' ś°'	/ʃ'ʷ/	ś°'yc'e "black"
	Š š	/ɕ/	šy "three"
	Ŝ ŝ	/ʂ/	ŝe "hundred", ŝabe "soft, meek"
T	T t	/t/	te "we"
	T' t'	/t'/	nyt'e "yes"
	T°' t°'	/tʷ'/	t°'yrys "old"
U u		/w/	uyben "to tamp, make smooth"
X	X x	/χ/	xyien "to move"
	X° x°	/χʷ/	-x°y "male ___"
Y y		/ə/	zy "one"
Z	Z z	/z/	-bze "female ___, -speech"
	Ź ź	/ʒ/	bźyḥe "autumn"
	Ź° ź°	/ʒʷ/	ź°aġ°e "star"
	Ž ž	/ʑ/	žaua "shadow"
	Ẑ ẑ	/ʐ/	ẑy "old", ẑaẑe "slow"
'	'	/ʔ/	'e "hand"
	'°	/ʔʷ/	'°yćen "to meet"

Dolorś'yć

In 1689 AN, an alternative orthography, known as Dolorś'yć', came into use among the Ŝḥenĉeł'yh and the Laqi holdings in Brookshire and the Guttuli, i.e. the Dolorets community. Developed by the Dirâsat-an-Nûr for the purpose of increasing knowledge of written and spoken Laqi at the Imperial court and among Imperial staff, it was designed to reflect the distinct pronunciation found in Dolorbze.

The primary differences of Dolorbze are in vowel quality and syncope.

For the former, vowels assimilate with preceding labialized consonants, resulting in a 6-vowel system based upon height and rounding contrast. Rounded vowels, especially with zero onset, can be pronounced with a leading semivowel /w/, e.g. wn (/wʊn/), "house", vs siwn (/sɨjʊn/) "my house". The latter example also shows a spelling change, which renders /ɨj/ as , allowing the character to have two interpretations.

	Central
Close-mid	ɨ	ʉ~ʊ
Open	a a:	ɔ ɔ:

Vowel		Example
y	/ɨ/	ł'y	/ɬ'ɨ/	"man"
w	/ʊ/	cw	/t͡sʊ/	"ox"
e	/a/	ne	/na/	"eye"
o	/ɔ/	-k'o	/k'ɔ̆/	"-er"
a	/a:/	pai	/paj/	"for, in order to"
oe	/ɔ:/	źoeġo	/ʒɔ:ʁɔ̆/	"star"

Dolorbze also features a more pervasive degree of end-word vowel syncope than other varieties of Red Laqi.

For /a/, it is only retained at the end of monosyllabic words, or when such a reduction would produce an end-word consonant cluster. In turn, this reduces causes the Indefinite Absolutive and Ergative-Oblique case forms to match that of the Adjectival Case, for Instrumental case endings to become -ć'/-mć'e and the plural marker to become -(e)h. <e> in these conditions is left unwritten.

For /ɔ/, it is reduced to a supershort length, marked with a breve in the phonetic transcriptions. <o> is written unchanged.

The other vowels are unaffected by this process.