Ahitereiran Phonology

The phonology of Ahitereiran varies among dialects, this article focuses on the standard pronunciations, as Ahitereiran is a bicentric language we'll focus on the Metropolitan Standard Accent (MS) and the Illuaqi Standard Accent (IS).

One of the most salient differences is between the stress, as unlike the Metropolitan accent, IS tends to have a very strict stress rule, only stressing the last syllable of every sound, similarly to the Illuaqi language, unlike the rather sporadic stressing rules used in the Ahitereiran language. IS tends to also disallow certain open syllables, choosing to use the /q/ sound as one of its primary ways of closing open syllables. A lenition of the velar sounds in Ahitereiran also is put in action, as /g/ and /k/ are sometimes transformed into /q/ and the /x/ sound often becomes /ʁ/, due to debuccalization.

Consonants
The ancient Anternian system of consonants is still seen in the phonology of modern day Ahitereiran with the usage of /m/, /n/, /b/, /p/, /d/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /z/,/l/ ,/s/ and /r/, but also sees the various influences from the surrounding regions, such as /x/ from the Kentronik regions, the /ɲ/ from the native Kloresans and the /h/ and /ɾ/ from the Empherian peoples.With the other sounds developing naturally the language. Notes:
 * It is common for the omission of the Voiceless glottal fricative in the southern regions, specially in the Urban Koresan accent.
 * The /x/ sound is often transformed into an /h/ in the Northern region of the country.
 * The Terras Dialect often merges the /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/ and /ʃ/ into /ʃ/, unifying three sounds into one, losing some of its fricatives in the process.
 * The Allophone (q) is often used instead of the /k/ sound in the start of a phrase.

Vowels


In Ahitereiran there is no phonemic distinction between long and short vowels, but vowels in stressed open syllables, unless word-final, are long at the end of the intonational phrase (including isolated words) or when emphasized. Adjacent identical vowels found at morpheme boundaries are not re-syllabified, but pronounced separately ("quickly re-articulated"), and they might be reduced to a single short vowel in rapid speech. Although Ahitereiran contrasts close-mid (/e, o/) and open-mid (/ɛ, ɔ/) vowels in stressed syllables, this distinction is neutralised in unstressed position, where only the close-mid vowels occur. The height of these vowels in unstressed position is context-sensitive; they are somewhat lowered ([e̞, o̞]) in the vicinity of more open vowels.

In IS, there is no distinction towards the /e/,/o/ sounds and the /ɛ, ɔ/, since stress is always in the last syllable of a phrase, having a phonemic distinction between /e, o/ and /e:, o:/.

Ahitereiran has in adition to the monophtongs, diphtongs and triphtongs, but these are both phonemically and phonetically simply combinations of the other vowels, with some being very common (e.g. /ai, au/), others being rarer (e.g. /eu/) and some never occurring within native words (e.g. /oɔ/). None of these diphthongs are however considered to have distinct phonemic status because their constituents do not behave differently than they would in isolation (and all occur in isolation).

Onset
Ahitereiran allows up to three consonants in syllable-initial position, with some limitations:

CC

 * /s z/ + /m n b d t l r/; E.g. sdak ('Duck')
 * /s z/ + /p k g/; E.g. zko ('Food' (Archaic))

CCC

 * /s z/ + /p k g/ + /ɾ l j/ E.g. Spjot ('To say with sarcasm' (Infinitive))

Nucleus
The nucleus is the only mandatory part of the syllable, with the obligation of being either a vowel or a diphthong. Syllables using /j/ may be labeled as diphthongs, but are ultimately not counted as part of the nucleus, since they're considered consonant-vowel combinations rather than a diphthong.

VV

 * /a u e o/ + /a i u/; E.g. Ionea ('Ioanea')
 * /i/ + /o/; E.g. Ionea ('Ioanea')

Coda
Ahitereiran permits a large number of coda consonants, with the only consonants not counting as coda being: /b z j t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʃ/.