Vowels

Oral vowels

Iridian has five pairs of corresponding long and short vowels. Vowel length is indicated in orthography by an accute accent (sripka) over the vowel. With the exception of /a aː/, long vowels are tenser than their short counterparts. In addition standard Iridian also features the high central vowel [ɨ] as an allophone of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ and the low central [ɐ] as an allophone of /a/, in unstressed positions.See Tufte’s comment in the Tufte book fonts thread.

Diphthongs

Iridian has three phonemic oral diphthongs: au /au̯ /, ei /eɪ̯/ and ou /ou̯ /. In addition, the diphthongs oi /ɔɪ̯/ and ui /uɪ̯/ also occur phonetically, but their occurence is marginal, normally appearing only in fixed expressions (mostly interjections and expletives), such as Avui, ‘Damn it!’ [ʔɐˈʋuɪ̯ʔ], pšehui, ‘annoying’ [ˈpɕɛxuɪ̯ʔ] and Oi, ‘Hey!’ [ʔɔɪ̯ʔ]. Even then, /uɪ̯/, and less commonly, /ɔɪ̯/ may be realized as [yː] or [iː] (the latter is more common in southern dialects and the former elsewhere).

In most dialects the diphthong /eɪ̯/ has almost completely merged with é /eː/, although some divergent dialects in the south may realise the diphthong as [iː] (e.g., neite, ‘word’ /ˈneɪ̯tɛ/ but realised as [ˈneːtɛ] or [ˈɲiːtɛ]).

Consonants

Plosives

Initial velar stops are affricated when following a pause, so that the pair /k ɡ/ is often realised as [k͡x ɡ͡ɣ]. Some Southeastern dialects, however, normally realise initial velar stops as aspirated [kʰ ɡʰ] instead. This sound change can be traced to the initial aspirated stops *kʰ, *gʰ, *tʰ, and *dʰ in Old Iridian weakening to affricates. The labial stops /p b/ are unaffected by this process as most instances of *pʰ and *bʰ have merged to /b/ or /ʋ/ in modern Iridian. The velar stops /k ɡ/ are lenited to the velar fricatives [x ɣ] intervocalically, before a voiceless stop, after a vocalised l if followed by another vowel or a voiceless stop, or before the nasal consonants /n/ or /m/ if following a vowel immediately. This lenition also occurs word-finally unless followed by a voiced obstruent, in which case, subject to word-final devoicing, they merge to [x]. The voiced /ɡ/ itself has a limited distribution, mostly appearing in consonant clusters with liquids or nasals.

This lenition can also be observed with the voiced stops /b/ and /d/ which become the approximants [β̞ ] and [ð̞] (written without the diacritic hereafter) intervocalically or between a vocalised /l/ and another vowel.

The glottal stop [ʔ] is often not regarded as a separate phoneme. It can occur in three cases: (1) before an onset vowel when following a pause, e.g., avt, ‘car’ [ʔäʋt]; (2) between two vowels that do not form a diphthong, e.g., naomá, ‘laundry’ [’näʔɔmäː]; or (3) emphatically, especially in interjections, e.g., Oi, ‘Hey!’ [ʔɔɪ̯ʔ], Káp!, ‘Look out!’ lit., ‘danger’ [k͡xäpʔ].

Nasals

Iridian has three nasal consonants /m n ɲ/. /n/ cannot appear before bilabials and similarly /m/ cannot appear before velars. Both /m/ and /n/ are realised as [m] before either /ʋ/ or /f/. Before velars /n/ is consistently realised as [ŋ], although [n] is also possible in emphatic pronunciation or in word boundaries.

The velar [ŋ] is not phonemic in Iridian but can sometimes be observed, especially in loanwords, where it can be realised as nasalisation of the preceding vowel when in the syllable coda or as [ŋ] intervocalically, although [ŋɡ] or [ŋk] is also common. Thus, for example, anglevní, ‘English’ can be realised as either [ˈäŋlɛʋɲiː] or [ˈäŋɡlɛʋɲiː] in order of currency.

Liquids

Iridian has three liquids: the rhotic /r/ and the lateral /l/ and /l/. The rhotic /r/ is realised in one of three ways. Word-initially it is pronounced as the uvular fricative [ʁ] (or as the uvular trill fricative [ʀ̝], depending on the speaker, but both transcribed here simply as [ʁ]). The realisation as [ʁ] is also often used when pronouncing words emphatically. When in the coda position and before a pause /r/ is realised as [ɾʑ] or simply as [ʑ]. This pronunciation was originally that of a voiceless alveolar trill [r̥ ] but this has simplified to [r̝] and finally to [ɾʑ] or [ʑ] in Standard Iridian. The pronunciation as [r̥] or [r̝] may nevertheless persist in some southern dialects, primarily due to Czech influence. Note that [ɾʑ] or [ʑ] is not affected by word-final devoicing. Elsewhere /r/ is realised as the flap [ɾ]. Palatal /rʲ/ is in general more stable, realised simply as [ɾʲ], although when in the coda position and if not followed by a vowel, it may be realised as [ɾʑ] or [ʑ].

The lateral /l/ is actually the velarised alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ]. Nonetheless the sound has been transcribed throughout as /l/. In the coda position /l/ is completely vocalised and is transcribed here as [w] in standard Iridian; most southern dialects nevertheless retain the pronunciation as [ɫ]. The palatalised /lʲ/ is the palatal lateral approximant [ʎ] and is transcribed as such.

Fricatives and affricates

The palatal sibilants /ɕ ʑ/ can be realised as either the palatal [ɕ ʑ] or the postalveolar [ʃ ʒ] with the former being more common. The same is true with the palatal affricates /t͡ɕ d͡ʑ/, realised as either [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ] or [t͡ʃ d͡ʒ], with the former also being more prevalent.

The sequence /t͡sɪ/ and /t͡si:/ are realised as [t͡ɕɪ] and [t͡ɕiː] respectively (viz., cigra, ‘tiger’ is realised as [ˈt͡ɕɪɣɾɐ] and not [ˈt͡sɪɣɾɐ]). The stop fricative sequence [tɕ] can occur in syllable boundaries, although as form of hypercorrection most speaker may lengthen the initial stop to [tːɕ] or aspirate it (becoming [tʰ.ɕ]) to further distinguish it from /t͡ɕ/ (cf. e.g., otša, ‘cart’ [ˈʔɔtːɕɐ] vs oča, ‘bear’ [ˈʔɔt͡ɕɐ]).

The voiced affricates /d͡z/ and /d͡ʑ/, written hdzi and hdži, respectively, are both marginal phonemes. They normally occur as voiced allophones of /t͡s/ and /t͡ɕ/ before voiced obstruents. They do occur phonemically in a fewwords, though, mostly in loanwords. Nonetheless, in spoken Iridian loanwords containing [d͡ʑ] or [d͡ʒ] (mostly from English) are realised by speakers as [ʑ] (e.g., džíns, ‘jeans’ [dʑiːns] or more commonly just [ʑiːns]).

The voiceless labial fricative /f/ is another marginal phoneme, appearing usually as an allophobe of /ʋ/. Loanwords containing /f/ generally assimilate to /ʋ/, although most recent borrowings tend to keep the marginal /f/ (cf. Vranca, ‘France’ [vɾɐ̃w̃ t͡sɐ] vs. Feizbuk, ‘Facebook’ [feːzbʊx]).

The approximant /ʋ/ is realised as [v] in onsets before vowels and voiced obstruents (e.g., vdinice, ‘I thought I saw.’ [ˈvɟɪnɨt͡sɛ]), as [f] in onsets before voiceless obstruents (e.g., vternou, ‘bicycle’ [ˈftɛɾnou̯ ]), and as [ʋ] or [u̯ ] in coda and elsewhere (e.g., pilav, ‘pilaf’ [ˈpʲɪɫä ʋ] or [ˈpʲɪɫä u̯ ]). The sequence /kʋ/ and /ɡʋ/ is further lenited to the labialised velar fricatives [xʷ ɣʷ]. The voiceless [xʷ] (from both hkvi and hhvi) is in free variation with [ʍ], with the latter being the more common pronunciation, especially among younger speakers. For simplicity both [xʷ] and [ʍ] will be transcribed as [ʍ]. Modern Iridian has lost the distinction between /h/ and /x/, with both hchi and hhi, historically representing /x/ and /h/, respectively, merging to the velar fricative /x/. This becomes /ç/ before voiceless stops word-initially or when following a front vowel, or before the front vowels /i/ and /ɪ/. The sequence hhli and hkli are realised as /t͡ɬ/.

Phonotactics

Suprasegmentals

Stress

Iridian words generally have a single primary stress, falling on the first syllable, no matter if the word is simple (e.g., študent, ‘student’), derived (e.g., študenta, ‘student, pat.’) or compound (e.g., študentrád, ‘dormitories’). Most loanwords follow this general pattern, although more recent borrowings, especially those referring to proper names, show a greater tendency to keep the phonology of the source language and not fully assimilate to Iridian’s initial stress rule.

Intonation

Orthographic representation

Alphabet

The Iridian language uses the Latin script with the following 29 letters: a, b, c, č, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, š, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, ž. The language was originally written in its own script but after the Latin alphabet has been adapted and has been in use since the First Bohemian Union in the 14th century. Due to the historical ties with the Kingdom of Bohemia and its historical successors, Czech orthography has had a great influence on the orthography of Iridian.

The Cyrillic script coexisted with the Iridian Latin alphabet from the 12th until the early 16th century. Today Cyrillic is no longer used to write Standard Iridian, instead confined as the writing system for the language’s Ukrainian dialects.

In addition to the caron (ˇ — dopka) found in č, š and ž used to indicate palatalisation, Iridian also uses the acute accent (´ — sripka), which is used to mark long vowels. Accented vowels are not considered as separate letters but as alternative forms of the same vowel; accented consonants, however, are.

Spelling conventions

Punctuation