User:Kalathei95/sandbox/KalaviTest001/KalaviTestPhone

Oriental Kalavi
There is general disagreement as to the exact number of consonants Classical Kalavi (and its modern varieties) have. Traditionally, the Kalavi Script recognises 45 consonants (46 consonants if ⟨ý⟩ /ʡ/ is counted). In modern varieties of Kalavi, the number of consonants varies by dialect as Kalavi evolved overtime and interacted with areal cultures, with Occidental Kalavi containing 35, and Oriental Kalavi containing 42-44. The discrepancy in the number of consonants between both major varieties lay in the distinction of voiced nasal consonants and the phonemic recognition of palatal stops: /c/ and /ɟ/.

Kalavi has an extremely rich consonant inventory, exhibiting complex consonant clusters, numerous degrees of articulations and consonant mutations. As Kalavi is natively spoken by dragons, certain consonant clusters easily articulated by dragons may pose challenges to human speakers not accustomed to rich consonant structures.

Like its neighbouring Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Tungusic, Mongolic and other Paleosiberian language families, Kalavi shares an extensive inventory of consonant lateral affricates including /t͡ɬ/ and /d͡ɮ/. Historical linguists have attempted to link Draconian with Na-Dene (and by extension, the hypothetical Dené–Yeniseian) languages through word comparisons and its lateral consonants, though such research is ongoing.

Consonant Clusters
In theory, Kalavi does not impose restrictions on the complexity of consonant structure, but generally, sonorant consonants are more likely than plosives ones to form complex onset and coda. Kalavi does not recognise semi-vowels as syllable nuclei, and an entire single-syllable word can consist of only consonants, though this is only found in a handful of word such as: tł [t͡ɬ(ə̥̆)] 'I talk' and sx [ɕˠ̥(ə̥̆)] 'I obey'. Consonants occur most during derivation, word compounding and affixation of particles and grammatical lexicon. The verb ncśfxgve [ˈn̊t͡ʃʃʷ̥ˠ̥ɡʷɛː] (to be depressed) is comprised of three morphemes: ncś + fx + gv, all combined to constitute one syllable. Consonant clusters are also preserved in Old Chinese loanwords such as kryegvyét [krˤ̥ɛˈɡʷˤɛt̚] (from 解決 *kˤreʔ [k]ʷˤet).

Consonant clusters may also occur due to elision and epenthesis in syllables with strongly sonorant strings of vowels and liquid consonants. The word kajdzalara, 'to report, or to alert' is formally pronounced /kaj.d͡zaˈlara/, but may be elided to [ˈkaɪˈd͡ɮaːrə̆]. Whole syllables may collapse, such as the word kryavgzḷyades 'would caused to stop solidifying in the future' is formally pronounced /ˈkrˤaʋɡ͜d͡ɮˤadɛɕ/, but may be reduced to [ˈkrˤawd͡ɮˌdˤəʑ] in rapid or casual speech. In an extreme case kfrjźymco /ˈkfrʲʒˤmt͡ʃo/ 'to spy' may be contracted to [k͡xʰʷˤrɱ̊t͡ʃ(ə̥̆)].

Multiple Articulation
By virtue of Kalavi's inventory of consonant clusters derived from inflection and compounding, syllables beyond secondary articulations are very common. When the onset of a syllable has more than two articulations, the order of letters are placed based on the place of articulation. The word for 'yellow', kfyaŋ /kʷˤaŋ/ contains a labialisation and pharyngealisation of /k/, and since labialisation occurs in a higher place of articulation than pharyngealisation, ⟨f⟩ occurs before ⟨y⟩.

Vowels
Kalavi has 7 vowels and exist in pairs with their long and short versions. Short vowels are more centred and laxed. In general speech, any short unstressed vowel may centralise to schwa. The vowels /ø/ and /œ/ are monophthongisations of vowel combinations oe and eo respectively which is not traditionally part of Classical Kalavi's 7 vowel distinction. However, in recent centuries, the distinction of oe and eo as independent phonemes have become prominent.

Vowels are distinguished by length and are phonemic, serving grammatical function. Lengthened vowels may occur when two identical vowels are adjoined through inflection, declension, suffixation or compounding. Lengthened vowels are almost always stressed unless an existing syllable is indicated as stressed.


 * ðvato /ˈðʷato/ 'I lead' → ðvatōeð /ˌðʷaˈtoːəð/ 'they led'.
 * odjo /ˈoɟo/ 'drink' (undeclined) → odjōn /oˈɟoːn/ 'drink’ (masculine 3rd class).
 * ve /ʋɛ/ 'I walk' → vvē /ʋːɛː/
 * sōvǻpru /ɕɔːˈʋɒpru/ 'I argue' → sōvǻprūp /ɕɔːˈʋɒprup/ 'argued, me'.

Vowel combinations
Modern draconian in all of its varieties have undergone a great deal of monophthongisation as consonant clusters became ever more complex. Nevertheless, diphthongs remain extensive in inflection, including noun declensions and verb conjugations. Outside of inflections, diphthongs and triphthongs are exceedingly rare with previously diphthongal words such as blğeiund /blˠɛɪ(j)und/ monophthonging to blğeīvnd /blˠɛ.iːʋnd/, 'talent'. If two vowels are adjacent to each other, a circumflex, macron or acute is placed on the second vowel to indicate a syllable break, e.g. iddḷaûíqs 'heterosexual', ağvokiæ̂cü 'absence' or iógvifáyi 'practical'.

Stress and prosody
Classical Kalavi is generally a stressed-timed language, though it exhibits significant mora-timing in some verbal inflections. Stress is phonemic, and serves grammatical function in some cases. Most words follow a trochaic pattern if the first syllable onset is a consonant (i.e. every odd syllable is stressed), while stress tends to be iambic if the first syllable's onset is a short vowel, or a consonant that is lower on the sonority hierarchy than its second syllable onset, or it is a borrowing from Sinitic languages (i.e. every even syllable is stressed), but this is not always the case. Words that do not follow the conventional stress patterns are typically found in loanwords, or have their stress patterns unpredictably overridden by inflection or derivational morphonology.

Iambic patterns:

 * eŕæm /ɛˈʁæːm/ 'I arrive'.
 * eŕæmkif /ɛˈʁæːm.kɪ̆f/ 'hadn't arrive, (me)'.
 * kxmjilyuqs /k͡xm̥ʲɪ̆ˈɫˤuq͡s/ 'guidance'.
 * qudḷeg /quˈd͡ɮeːɡ/ 'ghost'.
 * ijðqoryor /ijðˈqoː.rˤor/ 'At the ground'.

Trochaic patterns:

 * śalikir /ˈʃaːlɪˌkiɾ/ 'fox, vixen'.
 * negelervddḷyedj /ˈneː.gɛ.ɫərʷdːd͡ɮˤɛɟ/ 'they would continuously revive in the future'.
 * sfǖlbtegaûvrn /ˈɕʍyːɫb.tə̆.ˌɡaː.urn/ 'I appoint'.
 * jonivovq /ˈjoːn(ɪ)ˌʋoʋq/ 'yesterday'.

Mixed patterns:

 * obbizmōon /obˈbiːʑˌmɔːŏn/ 'hoax'.
 * bíaśŋioāiri /ˈbiːaʃ.ŋʲ(ɪ)oˈai.ri/ 'long worm's'.
 * oblvūŋdğesparjá /oˈbɫʷuːŋdˠə̆sparˈja/ 'wrongdoing (vocative case)'.
 * krelkźañbyos /krə̆ɫk.ˈʒaːɲ.bˤoːɕ/ 'warning sign'.
 * uktukiri /ukˈtuːˌkiɾɪ/

Phonological differences
The Palavandishvili-Wiśniewska Transliteration (1923) for Kalavi is one of the most widely used romanisation systems of the language. Nevertheless, as PWT was created based off the European Occidental Dialect of Kalavi, certain letters may represent two or more sounds found in Oriental Kalavi, or none at all.

s, z
Classical Kalavi distinguishes six sibilant consonants: /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/. In occidental varieties of Kalavi, both /s/ and /z/ have merged with /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, but is retained in oriental varieties of Kalavi.

Voicing in nasal consonants
Voicing distinctions in nasal consonants are increasingly assimilated and non-phonemic in occidental dialects of Kalavi, only occurring as allophones within consonant clusters and independently in a handful of words. PWT reflects this distinction by adding h- before nasals to explicitly indicate its voicelessness; when absent, the nasal is almost always voiced. Oriental dialects, in contrast, retains Classical Kalavi's voice distinction; thus, words like mī /m̊iː/ 'cream' and mī /miː/ 'critter' are phonologically distinct. The uvular nasal /ɴ/ is no longer phonemic in occidental dialects, merging and becoming allophonic with the voiced velar nasal /ŋ/. Oriental dialects retain /ɴ/, and may undergo devoicing to /ɴ̊/ before voiceless uvular consonants.

Debuccalisation
Final stops regularly undergo debuccalisation. Occidental dialects tend towards devoicing (or 'slacking'), while final consonants in oriental dialects tend to become glottal stops.