Temanean Language

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	p / b		t / d			g
Affricatives				ch / jh
Fricatives		v*	s	x / j			h
Approximants			r		yy
Nasals	m		n			ng
Lateral Approximants			l

Unvoiced sounds are on the left of the "/", while voiced sounds are on the right.

• The palato-alveolar affricative "jh" is pronounced as the "j" in jog or jab.
• The palato-alveolar fricatve "x" is pronounced as the "sh" in shy or show.
• The palato-alveolar fricative "j" is pronounced as the "s" in vision or delusion.
• The alveolar approximant "r" is never trilled, but is usually tapped behind the teeth.
• The palatal approximant "yy" is pronounced as the "y" in yes or yellow.

Exceptions

• * The labio-dental fricative "v" is used primarily by people from the island kingdoms. Mainland speakers might substitute this sound with a "b".

Vowels

	Front	Middle	Back
High	y
Mid-High	i	uo	u
Mid	e	eu
Mid-Low	ae	o
Low		a

• The high front vowel sound "y" is pronounced as the "ee" in feet or reed.

• The mid-high front vowel sound "i" is pronounced as the "i" in pit and fit.
• The mid-high middle vowel sound "uo" is pronounced as the "i" in bargin or margin.
• The mid-high back sound "u" is pronounced as the "u" in put and the "oo" in wood.

• The middle front sound "e" is pronounced as the "e" in pet or get.
• The middle vowel sound "eu" is pronounced as the "u" in furl or hurt.

• The mid-low front vowel sound "ae" is pronounced as the "a" in bat or rag.
• The mid-low back sound "o" is pronounced as the "o" in pot or wrong.

• The middle low sound "a" is pronounced as the "u" in but or the "a" in far.

Diphthongs & Triphthongs

Common diphthongs include:

• ea,
• ai,

Common triphthongs include:

• iao,
• oea,

Syllable Structure

• Temanean syllables always have a consonant onset (first letter) and vowel nucleus (middle letter) but only sometimes have a coda (end letter).

Onsets ...

• starting with "a" or "e" are pronounced as "ha" or "he" (see Exceptions below).

Codas ...

• can only be "n", "ng", or sometimes "r" if it's a consonant.
• are usually "a" or "i" if it's a vowel, but can be any vowel.

Exceptions

• Some syllables that these rules still exist but are considered outdated, such as "esn" from the So Esn Kingdom, where the coda is made of two consonant sounds. This is pronounced as it reads, and words like this only survives due to their historic significance.
• Similarly, the city of Eo Si in eastern Teman starts with an onset of "e", which only survives due to it being a historical name that happened to not change.

Stress

Only on the first syllable, or the second syllable of a three-syllable word.