Leutiktja language

Leutiktja (Leutiktja: tjéLeutiktja [cɛ.'ɮ.euɾ.ik.c:.ħɑ̥], Terryfs: løriks Leurics [lø.ʁɪks], Alhi: [placeholder]) is an Eastern Touban spoken throughout the condominium of Ojanka/Fassaujə. It is the most divergent and most spoken Touban language, being spoken by an estimated 130,000 people, almost all Kjareleni, across Ojanka and to a lesser extent by emigre communities in Matkha and Xjetjeŋ.

Phonology and orthography

Phonology

The phonology of Leutiktja is very unusual, even compared to other Touban languages. It features 9 consonant phonemes, and two sets of five vowels, called pure vowels and chained vowels respectively, a direct translation of the name of the two sets in Leutiktja: natjaiei and naedlieoek. In a word stem, only pure vowels are allowed to occur; chained vowels only occur when inflecting; when a grammatical process requires a switch from pure to chained vowels, this is called "chaining". In addition, in a cluster of two or more vowels, pure vowels are pronounced separately, whilst chained vowels form diphthongs. For example, the word tjauiae [IPA: c:.'auiaeɹ̠̊˔:] means banana tree (in the nominative), and the word tjáuiae [IPA: c:.ə͡œ͜ɪ͡ə.'ɛ] means banana tree's (in the genitive).

Leutiktja consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Guttural
Nasal	m /m/	n /n/
Plosive		t /t/	tj /c/	k /k/
Fricative	ph /ɸ/	l /l~s/		h /h~x/
Approximant			y /j/

	Front		Back
	pure	chained	pure	chained
Close	i /i/	í, i̋ /ɪ/	u /u/	ú, ű /ʊ~ɯ/
Mid	e /e/	é, e̋ /ɛ/	o /o/	ó, ő /œ~ɔ/
Open	a /a/	á, a̋ /ə/

Allophony

There is an extreme amount of allophonic variation in Leutiktja.

Consonant cluster allophony

	m	n	t	tj	k	ph	h	l	y
m	mm [mm]				km [k͡pm]	phm [fɱ̊]
n		nn [nn]			kn [kn]	phn [pθ̠]
t	mt [mt]	nt [nt]	tt [nn]		kt [kt]	pht [ft]
tj	mtj [mc]	ntj [nc]		tjtj [cc]	ktj [kc]	phtj [fc]
k	mk [ŋ͡m]	nk [ŋ̊k]	tk [tk]	tjk [ck͡x]	kk [kk]	phk [fx]		lk [lkx]	yk [kʲ]
ph	mph [mpɸ]	nph [nθ̠]		tjph [cf]		phph [ɸɸ]			yph [ɸʲ]
h	mh [ᵐm]	nh [ⁿn]	th [tʰ]	tjh [cʰ]	kh [kʰ]	phh [ɸɸ]	hh [hh]
l	ml [mɬ]	nl [ntɬ]	tl [tɬ]		kl [kʟ̝̊]			ll [ll]
y	my [mɥ]	ny [ɲ]	ty [c]		ky [kʲ]				yy [jj]

	Word initial	Between vowels	Word final	Terminating phonemes, word final	Chained vowel terminators, word final
m	m	mV̤	m̥	∅	∅
n	n	nV̤	n̥
t	t	ɾ	t
tj	c	ɟ	c	c'~ɟ
k	k	g	k	k'~ŋk
ph	ɸ	v	f	∅
h	ɦ	ɦ	h
l	l	ɮ	ɬ	l
y	j	j	ç	∅
i	i	∅	çɪ
u	u		ʍ
e	e		eɹ̠̊˔:		ɛ
o	o		ʍɔ	u	∅
a	a		ħɑ̥	∅	u

Syllable

Syllables in Leutiktja are organized somewhat differently than in other languages. A syllable in Leutiktja is traditionally composed of two parts, the onset and terminator. The onset can theoretically be a string of any number of sounds, and the terminator immediately ends the syllable. The consonants /c/, /k/, and /l/ are terminating phonemes, meaning that wherever in the syllable they occur, they immediately end the syllable. The pure vowel /o/, and the chained vowels /ɛ/ and /ə/ are also terminating phonemes.