More Detailed Pronunciation
Those phones in black: used in all forms of Hopyratian
Those phones in red: only used in Classic Hopyratian
Those phones in blue: only used in Yestenese Hopyratian
Those phones in green: only used in Holic Hopyratian
As you can see, the consonants have changed over the years through the development of Hopyratian. Classic Hopyratian used to use Dental Stops, Nasals and Lateral Approximants before it evolved into Holic Hopyratian where they moved back to be Alveolar Stops, Nasals and Lateral Approximants when it was spoken by the Zondors and Harpies. In the Isle of Yest, the Yestenese Hopyratian has Retroflex Stops, Nasals and Lateral Approximants in instead due to their location in the south.
The voiced alveolar fricative [z] in Classic and Yestenese Hopyratian was lost in Holic Hopyratian as it started using the loanword "jedor (to rip)" from Old Eldich and it evolved into the Hopyratian "zýdoki". From then the phoneme /z/ no longer represented the voiced alveolar fricative [z] but now the voiced postalveolar fricative [ʒ]. This was only in Holic Hopyratian.
The unvoiced velar fricative [x] exists in Classic Hopyratian however in Yestenese and Holic Hopyratian is was lost and was replaced by the unvoiced glottal fricative [h]. Hopyratian in Classic used to be "Khopyratia".
The unvoiced palato-alveolar affricate [ʧ] was lost from Classic Hopyratian in both Yestenese and Holic Hopyratian and the letters that represented it became unvoiced postalveolar fricatives [ʃ].
The glottal stop [ʔ] was used a lot in Classic Hopyratian however was lost in a lot of words. The only examples in Holic Hopyratian is in the "pronouns with be" and shortened definite article, from "sila" to "'la".
Vowels
Vowels have also changed throughout the development of Hopyratian.
Those phones in black: used in all forms of Hopyratian
Those phones in red: only used in Classic Hopyratian
Those phones in blue: only used in Yestenese Hopyratian
Those phones in green: only used in Holic Hopyratian
In Classic Hopyratian, there were two variations of the high front vowels, unrounded [i] and rounded [y]. The rounded vowel [y] was lost in Yestenese and Holic Hopyratian which was represented by /y/. This is the reason why /y/ is silent when between two consonants and before /a, ā/ because it used to be a vowel sound. I will expand more on /y/ later.
Holic Hopyratian, in place of the /y/ vowel, evolved to have /u/ which replaced it.
Yestenese Hopyratian has a unrounded variation of [o], [ɤ] which was an allophone of /o/ that occurred when it was unstressed.
Vowels in all forms of Hopyratian are lengthened by a macron over them. There are some unusual ones though: [i] is represented by /i/ however [iː] is represented as /ē/. This is also irregular: [e] is represented by /e/ but [eː] is represented by /ý/. It's just how it evolved.
In all forms of Hopyratian, /a/ is realised as [ə] when is is unstressed.
The consonant "y"
/y/ became a consonant after [y] was lost from Yestenese and Holic Hopyratian. It was used to represent [j] however was still written using the same letter. The /y/ is silent where it used to represent the vowel [y]; when in between two consonants and after /a, ā/ due to the fact it used to be the diphthong /ya/.
Those phones in red: only used in Classic Hopyratian
Those phones in blue: only used in Yestenese Hopyratian
Those phones in green: only used in Holic Hopyratian
In Classic Hopyratian, there were two variations of the high front vowels, unrounded [i] and rounded [y]. The rounded vowel [y] was lost in Yestenese and Holic Hopyratian which was represented by /y/. This is the reason why /y/ is silent when between two consonants and before /a, ā/ because it used to be a vowel sound. I will expand more on /y/ later.
Holic Hopyratian, in place of the /y/ vowel, evolved to have /u/ which replaced it.
Yestenese Hopyratian has a unrounded variation of [o], [ɤ] which was an allophone of /o/ that occurred when it was unstressed.
Vowels in all forms of Hopyratian are lengthened by a macron over them. There are some unusual ones though: [i] is represented by /i/ however [iː] is represented as /ē/. This is also irregular: [e] is represented by /e/ but [eː] is represented by /ý/. It's just how it evolved.
In all forms of Hopyratian, /a/ is realised as [ə] when is is unstressed.
The consonant "y"
/y/ became a consonant after [y] was lost from Yestenese and Holic Hopyratian. It was used to represent [j] however was still written using the same letter. The /y/ is silent where it used to represent the vowel [y]; when in between two consonants and after /a, ā/ due to the fact it used to be the diphthong /ya/.
Phonemes and Allophones
Vowels:
Phonemes
/a/ /ā/ /e/ /ý/ /i/ /ē/ /o/ /ō/ /u/ /ū/ |
Phones and Allophones
[a, ə] [aː] [e] [eː] [i, aj] [iː] [o] [oː] [u] [uː] |
Hopyratian has odd vowels; some of the letters don't represent what you would expect. I do apologise (but I think words look good with these letters)
Consonants:
Phonemes
/b/ /c/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /x/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ /th/ /'/ |
Phones and Allophones
[b] [ʃ] [d] [f] [g] [h] [ʤ] [k] [θ] [l] [m] [n] [ŋ] [p] [r, ɾ] [s] [t] [v] [ɰ] [j] [ʒ] [ð] [ʔ] |
/c/ represents [ʃ] (another thing that I wanted to do)