Oikan language

Oikan (Oikan: oikto Oikto [ˈo̞i̯.ktɵ̞]) is the official language of Sunteria. It is a Mallo-Brausian language.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Guttural
Nasal	m [m~ɱ]	n [n~ɲ~ŋ]
Plosive	p [p] b [b]	t [t] d [d]		k [k] g [g]
Affricate		t͡s [t͡s] d͡z [d͡z]	t͡ʃ [t̠͡ʃ] d͡ʒ [d̠͡ʒ]
Fricative	f [f] v [v]	s [s] z [z]	ʃ [ʃ] ʒ [ʒ]	h [h]
Central Approximant			j [j]	w [w]
Lateral Approximant		l [l~ʎ~ʟ]
Trill		r [r]

Vowels

Monophthongs
	Front	Back
Close	i [i~ɪ̈]	u [u~ʊ̈]
Mid	e [e̞~ə]	o [o̞~ɵ̞]
Open	a [ä~ɐ]
Diphthongs
ai̯ [äi̯] au̯ [äu̯] ei̯ [e̞i̯] eu̯ [e̞u̯] iu̯ [iu̯] oi̯ [o̞i̯] ou̯ [o̞u̯] ui̯ [ui̯]

Allophony

• monophthongs are reduced in unstressed syllables
• /m/ is labiodental when followed by /f, v/
• /n/ and /l/ are palatal when followed by /e, ei̯, eu̯, i, iu̯, j, ʃ, ʒ, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/
• /n/ and /l/ are velar when followed by /o, oi̯, ou̯, u, ui̯, w, k, g/

Phonotactics

Syllable structure: (C)⁴V(C)⁷

• a phoneme cannot cluster with itself, or with a phoneme that differs only by voicing, within the same syllable
• /h/ cannot cluster with another obstruent within the same syllable
• when /h/ clusters with a sonorant within the same syllable, /h/ must come first
• a nasal sonorant cannot cluster with another nasal sonorant within the same syllable
• a semivowel cannot cluster with another semivowel within the same syllable
• when an oral sonorant clusters with a nasal sonorant within the same syllable in an onset, the nasal sonorant must come first
• when a sonorant clusters with an obstruent within the same syllable in an onset, the obstruent must come first
• when a liquid clusters with a semivowel within the same syllable in an onset, the liquid must come first
• a liquid cannot cluster with another liquid within the same syllable in an onset
• nuclei must be vocalic
• /h/ cannot be codal
• semivowels cannot be codal
• when a sonorant clusters with an obstruent within the same syllable in a coda, the sonorant must come first
• when /r/ clusters with /l/ within the same syllable in a coda, /r/ must come first
• when an oral sonorant clusters with a nasal sonorant within the same syllable in a coda, the oral sonorant must come first
• hiatuses involving /i, iu̯, u, ui̯/ cannot occur, except in loanwords

Other Phonological Details

• stress-timed
• plosives always have an audible release
• adjacent obstruents other than /h/ regressively assimilate their voicing—this is not indicated in spelling
• there is normally no contrast between polyphthongs and hiatuses—if a sequence of vowels can syneresize into a polyphthong, it will always do so, except in some loanwords
• there is normally no contrast between vowels and semivowels—if a vowel can become a semivowel, it will always do so, except in some loanwords
• there is no contrast between affricates and sequences—if a sequence of consonants can combine into an affricate, it will always do so
• /j/ becomes /i/ wherever /j/ is phonotactically impossible
• /w/ becomes /u/ wherever /w/ is phonotactically impossible
• /h/ becomes /a/ wherever /h/ is phonotactically impossible—this is indicated in spelling
• /e/ is used as an epenthetic vowel wherever phonotactically necessary—this is indicated in spelling

Orthography

Oikan is written in a mixed script consisting of Ukilen logographs (rehie) and Astseredontia letters (suenie).

Dialectal Variation

There are many dialects of Oikan. Oikan dialects can be divided into two groups: yod-coalescing dialects and yod-preserving dialects. Yod-coalescing dialects are dialects where the sound shift {dj, d͡zj, d͡ʒj}, {sj, ʃj}, {tj, t͡sj, t͡ʃj}, {zj, ʒj} → d͡ʒ, ʃ, t͡ʃ, ʒ has occurred. Yod-preserving dialects are dialects where said sound shift did not occur.