'Arborese

'Arborese
Language family	Unknown
Era	today
Writing system	None (Latin)
Official status
Spoken in	'Arbor 'Iland
Speaker
Demonym	'Arborese
Number of speakers	only a couple dozen; critically endangered
Technical information
Usage	rare; in private, chiefly among elders
Language code	arb

'Arborese (sometimes spelled Arborese; no endonym documented) is a critically endangered language seldom spoken in the volcanic island territory of 'Arbor 'Iland. It is believed to be weakly agglutinative, although not much is known about its grammar at this time.

Phonetics

Arborese features a fairly minimalist phonemic inventory, with only four vowels and 11 consonants, though there is a degree of free variation and allophony depending on where a sound appears in a word, syllable or utterance, as well as 16 "combined vowels" that appear as diphthongs or long monophthongs.

Phonotactics

The syllable structure is (C)V(V)(C). Any consonant phoneme may start a syllable, but only /n/, /g/, /ʒ/, /d~ʔ/, /f/ and /z/ can appear in coda.

There are estimated to be 308 total possible syllables; properly including long monophthongs and diphthongs, up to 1,232.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal / Click	/m/ Mm	/n/ Nn	/ǀ/ [ᶢʇ~ᵏǂ] Tt		∅ ∅/-
Stop	/w/ Pbw	/d/ [t̺~l~ɾ] Lld	/ʒ/ [d͡ʒ] Cc	/g/ [ɣ] Gg	/ʔ/ '
Fricative	/f/ Ff	/z/ [z̪] Zz			/ɦ/ Hh

- /d/ is usually [ɾ] or sometimes [d̺], but is [l~ɾ] (Ll not [ǀ]) invervocally and word-initially, making "adua" and "a lua" usually phonetically distinct, although speakers sometimes pronounce them interchangeably.

- Similarly, /b/ is [b~p] word-initially, [b~ɓ] after [ʔ] (word-medial coda /d/), and otherwise [w] word-medially when either intervocalic or after /z/, /n/, /g/, /ʒ/ /f/, though it can occasionally be [b] in these environments.

- - It is also more commonly [b] before /o/, [w] before /e/, and in between before /a/.

- Coda /ɣ/ and /d͡ʒ/ are semi-distinct intervocally from onset /g/ and /ʒ/, but are considered the same phoneme as they are in weak complementary distribution, even being somewhat in free variation in all environments.

- /f/ becomes [ɸ] before /ɔ/, including diphthongs, as well as utterance-finally, where it may be considered somewhat syllabic in nature, as with /z/ and /ʒ/.

- Coda /d~ʔ/ is hard to describe, since it's usually /ʔ/, but is believed to have come from /d/, which exists in some environments. Most linguists tend to use both phonemes depending on the context, though some use an archiphonemic /D/. Others still propose using /t/ given it also becomes a click utterance-finally. It is always represented with <d> in romanization.

- Conversely, coda [n] is commonly analyzed as simply /n/, even thought allophonically it can appear as [m].

- /o/ frequently is voiceless or disappears between /z/ and before /z/ or /ʒ/, most often being realized as something akin to [s͡s͜ʷs] and [ʃ͡ʃ͜ʷʃ] respectively.

- - A similar process happens between two /f/s, although in this case the realization is more likely [fɵ̥f].

- Voicing is non-contrastive, although /m/, /n/, and word-medial intervocalic /b/ and /d/ tend to be voiced, while other phonemes are most likely slack voice, sometimes pronounced voiced or voiceless in free variation, with utterance-final sounds generally being fully voiceless (and glottal stops being their own thing). A more narrow transcription of these sounds would be /b̥ d̥ v̥ z̥ ʒ̊ g̊ ɦ̥ ᶢ̥ǀ/.

Below is a table of some of the more common realizations of morphological syllable clusters, although some sounds and especially voicing are fairly loose.

Coda + Onset	C + /m/	C + /n/	C + /ǀ/	C + /b/	C + /d/	C + /ʒ/	C + /g/	C + /f/	C + /z/	C + /h/	C + /ʔ/	(C +) Vowel	Word-Final C	Utterance-Final C
Word-Initial O	m	n	ᶢǀ~ᵏǀ	b	l	t͡ʃ~d͡ʒ	g~k	f~ɸ	z~s	h~ɦ	ʔ	∅	N/A	N/A
Vowel (+ O)	m	n	ᶢǀ~ᵏǀ	w~b	l~ɾ	ʒ	g~k	f~ɸ	z~s	ɦ	ʔ	see: vowels	∅	∅~h~ʔ
n + O	nm	n	ᵑǀ	nb~mb	nd, nɺ	nd͡ʒ	ŋg~nç	mv~ŋf	nz~nd͡z	nɦ	nʔ	n	n	n
f + O	fm	fn	fᵏǀ~ᵑǀ	fp~fɓ~fw	fd~ft, fl	fd͡ʒ	fg~fk	fʷf	fs~fz	fɦ~vh	fʔ	f~ɸ	f	ɸ~ů
z + O	zm	zn	zᶢǀ~zᵑǀ	zw~zb	zd, zl	zd͡ʒ	zg~sk	zf~sf	zʷz~sʷs	zh~sɦ	zʔ~sʔ	z~s	z~s	s
c + O	d͡ʒm~t͡ʃm	ʃn~d͡ʒ	ʒᶢǀ~ʒᵑǀ	d͡ʒb~ʒw	(d͡)ʒd, ʃɺ	ʒd͡ʒ~ʃt͡ʃ	ʒg~t͡ʃk	ʒf~t͡ʃf	ʒʷʒ~ʃʷʃ	t͡ʃh~d͡ʒɦ	t͡ʃʔ~ʒʔ	t͡ʃ~d͡ʒ	d͡ʒ	t͡ʃ~ʃ
g + O	km~ɣm	kn~ɣn	ᵏǀˀ~ǀ͡ɠ	gb~ɣw	kt~gd~ɠ͡|	gʒ~ɣʒ	ʔɣ~kx	gf~xf	ɣz~d͡z	gh~kh~x	ɣʔ~çʔ	ʁ~ɣ~ç	ɣ~x	x
d/' + O	ʔm	ʔn	ᵏǀˀ~ǀ͡ɠ	ʔb~ɓ	ʔd~ɗ	ʔʒ~ʔt͡ʃ	ʔg~ɠ	df~ʔf	ʔz~t͡s	dh~ʔh	dʔ	d~ɾ	ɾ~ʔ	ǀˀ

This phonetically creates a distinct [ᵑǀ], [ǀˀ], [sʷs], [ʃʷʃ], and [fʷf~fɵ̥f], semi-distinct [b] [d͡ʒ] and [ɣ], and non-distinct [ŋ~ɲ], [ɓ], [ɗ], [ɠ], [ǀ͡ɠ], [ɸ] and [t͡s]. None of these are considered phonemic.

Vowels

'Arborese features four vowels: /a/ Aa, /e/ Ee, and /o/ Oo. Each of these may combine into a different diphthong or lengthened monophthongs, as shown in the below table.

	Front	Open	Back
Unstressed Short	/e/ [ɪ~ɨ] e	/a/ [ɐ] a	/o/ [ɔ] o
Stressed Short	[i:] (i:~ɨ:) e	[ɜ:] aa	[o:] o
V + ɪ	[ɪ:] (e:~i:) ee	[aɛ̆] ae	[ɔɪ] [ɘɪ̆~we] oi
V + ɐ	[ɛă] ea	[a:]	[oɑ] (ɔɑ̆~wa) oa
V + ɔ	[ɪɒ] (jɑ~ɪɔ̆) eo	[aɔ̆] [~ɛʊ̆] ao	[ɒ:] (ɔ:~ɑː) oo
Utterance-initially	([j] +) V	([ʕ̞] +) V	([w] +) V

In addition, some argue that these can further combine into triphthongs or glides with lengthened monophthongs, although most agree they are realizations of vowel or diphthong hiatus. Additionally, two monophthongs across word boundaries are believed to have a true vowel hiatus and not become a diphthong.

Stress

The first syllable of a polysyllabic words is generally stressed, unless the second syllable is heavier. (C)V is lighter than CVV / CVC, which are both lighter than CVVC; i.e. eno, eenon, and faongaed would be stress-initial, but anoa, zomed, gaomead, and hazfeen would be second-syllable stress. Words that are four or five syllables long have secondary stress on the penultimate syllable, and have stressed syllables every even number of syllables beforehand up until (and including) the second syllable after the initial stressed syllable: i.e. Mafoanaazameegananoen would be [ma'foa.na:.zɐˌme:gɐˌnɐ:.nɔɪn].

For single-syllable words, CV and CVC words are generally unstressed, while CVV and CVVC words are generally stressed. Mae gae zau ne bo fe meneo would be ['mae.'gae.'zau.ne.bo.fe'mi:.nɪɒ]

Short monophthongs (/e/ /a/ /o/) that are stressed become long vowels. These are different from both double vowels (/ee/ /aa/ /oo/), which are long and have a different vowel quality, and two vowels across word boundaries (/e e/ /a a/ /o o/), which are technically two short vowels which can both be independently stressed or unstressed. Long vowels and diphthongs retain the same length, but are pronounced with an "unstressed" pitch.

Aside from lengthening short vowels, stress in 'Arborese is generally denoted with a falling pitch, starting from a higher tone and ending on the level tone that other syllables are resting at, meaning most syllables have a level low tone. However, the falling tone can become a rising tone in certain intonation patterns, with unstressed vowels following it becoming a level high pitch. This is sometimes dubbed "pitch inversion". (See below)

Intonation

Pitch inversion can happen for a number of reasons. Across a whole sentence, when exaggerated, it can indicate surprise, a dubitative, or an otherwise counterfactual. When less exaggerated, it can act as a polite correction or an answer to a no question, or otherwise as a way of highlighting important information or as a form of excitement or anxiety. When only the final stress of a clause, it indicates "incompleteness", and functions as both a pause between clauses (similar to a comma in French), or when exaggerated as the ending to a question.

Without pitch inversion, it indicates an indicative or answer to an affirmative question, with exaggeration indicating a correction, strong affirmation, or emotional emphatic. Emphasis on an individual pitch can indicate emphasis on a single word, somewhat similar to English, although it's generally only used for surprise or otherwise act to highlight the topic when answering or asking a yes/no interrogative, the latter of which may also end in a high pitch specifically on the final unstressed syllable (or rising if the final syllable is stressed).

Romanization

'Arborese does not feature its own alphabet, and the Latin script has been adopted to cover it, although in day-to-day use things are rarely written down in Arborese and linguists tend to use the IPA.

Letter	Aa	Pb	Cc	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Lld	Mm	Nn	Oo	Tt	Zz	'	-
Ipa	/a/	/b/	/ʒ/	/e/	/f/	/g/	/ɦ/	/d/	/m/	/n/	/o/	/ǀ/	/z/	/ʔ/	Null Onset after Codas

In romanization, , . ? and ! are frequently used, since they also affect intonation. ! is sometimes put before the first word to indicate a negative answer/correction, while italicization may be used for emphasized words. (!No, he eatn't the bread!)