Фонологїа

Vowels

Iridian has six phonemic vowels, as listed in the table below.

The front vowels /i/ and /ɛ/ have two orthographic variants, with ⟨і⟩ and ⟨ѣ⟩ indicating the palatalization of the preceding consonant (see Palatalization below).

In addition, diphthongs can be formed by the semivowels й /j/ and ў /w/, as follows:

Unstressed vowels are often centralized so that /a/ and /ʌ/ merge into [ɐ]~[ə], /i/ and /ɛ/ merge into [ɪ]~[ɨ], and /u/ and /ɔ/ merge into [o].

мамка [ˈmamkɐ] ‘mother’
піашчице [ˈpʲaɕt͡ɕɪt͡sɪ] ‘(he) ate (conjunctive)’
горе [ˈɣɔrɪ] ‘hill (patientive)’

The remaining -й glides have also further simplified. The glides /aj/, /ʌj/ and /ɛj/ have merged into [ɐj]~[əj], while /uj/ and /ɔj/ have merged into [uj]. Finally, /ij/ has simplified to [iː].

Aлексей [ɐˈlɛksɐj] ‘Alexey’
лейте [ˈlɐjtɪ] ‘room’
лайка [ˈlɐjkɐ] ‘foot’

Consontants / Хадь

The table below shows a complete list of consonant phonemes in Standard Irid- ian, with the allophones appearing in parentheses. In total, Iridian has 19 consonant phonemes but with 21 additional allophonic variants.

Plosives

The initial velar stop /k/ is affricated as [kx] while initial /g/ is realized as [ɣ]. Both are lenited to [x] and [ɣ] respectively in intervocalic position. At the end of a word, /k/ and /g/ merge to [x].

акузаце [ɐxuˈzat͡sɯ] ‘accusation’
грум [ɣrum] ‘shout’
витак [ˈvitɐx] ‘road’

Orthography

The Iridian alphabet is a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet, with 33 letters. The letters are listed below, with their names, their transcription in IPA, their transliteration.

The letter ь is used to indicate palatalization of the preceding consonant. It can appear at the end of a word, as in слень ‘soup’, or in the middle of a word if a the following syllable does not begin with a vowel, as in обенька ‘gate.’ In all other cases, palatalization of the preceding consonant would be indicated as follows:

• before the vowels а, о, and у, palatalization is indicated by the letter і, e.g., піашта ‘to eat,’ гіуд ‘goose’ (recall that ъ does not admit any -й-glides);
• as iotated variants of the letters и and е, the letters і and ѣ indicate palatalization of the preceding consonant before the vowels е and и, with the former replacing the latter in the orthography of the word, e.g., Пѣтър ‘Peter’ (not ^*Піетър).

The letter Її is not considered as a separate letter but as a variant of Іі. It represents a й- glide between /i/ and a following vowel, e.g., химїа ‘chemistry’ (not ^*химіа, ^*химійа, or ^*химіiа). A й- glide between /i/ and /ɛ/ is written їe and not іе, иѣ, or іѣ. Similarly, a й- glide between /i/ and /i/ is written їи and not іі or even їi. When ї is denote such a glide, the orthography does not distinguish between the iotated і and the non-iotated и; in practice, however, the usage always results in the palatalization of the preceding consonant.

At the beginning of a word, the letter ї represents the semivowel /j/ so that їанек ‘Janek’ is pronounced [ˈjanɛx] and not [iˈjanɛx]. To indicate that the preceding /i/ is pronounced, an apostrophe is added between the two vowels. Since both Іі and Ѣѣ are inherently iotated, the letter ї is not used to indicate /j/ when the former appear at the start of a word.

Phonological processes

Vowel alternations

The following phonological processes involving vowels occur in Iridian and are triggered whenever any suffix is added to a stem.

1. An unstressed -е in a closed syllable at the end of the stem is dropped before the addition of the suffix.

   Їанка ← Їанек ‘Janek’ (not ^*Їанека)
   облам ← обел ‘window’ (not ^*обелам)
   данку ← данек ‘tax’ (not ^*данеку)

   In case the deletion results in a cluster that violates the phonotactic rules, the -е is retained but shifted to the start of the phrase.

   пъзенку ← пъзнек ‘intelligence’ (not ^*пъзнку)
   

   In monosyllabic roots, the following additional rules apply:

   1. If the initial consonant is a stop, the -е is deleted only if the final consonant is a nasal or a fricative:

   2. If the initial consonant is a fricative, the -е is deleted only if the final consonant is a nasal:

   3. The -е is retained in all other cases.

2. Roots of the type –C^jаC(C) and –C^jоC(C) become –C^jеC(C) in the presence of palatalizing suffixes.

3. A stem undergoing deletion of the fleeting -е described above will cause the raising of the vowel in the preceding syllable; specifically, о and оў become у while е and ѣ become и. This ablaut is not triggered if the preceding syllable has a null onset.

   лубка ← лобек ‘apple’ (not ^*лобка)
   кустларь ‘fisherman’ ← костел ‘fish’ (not ^*костларь)
   пистларь ‘falconer’ ← пѣстел ‘falcon’ (not ^*пѣстларь)