nest

*brain melts*

Each character contains a fair few bits of information, both in meaning and in pronunciation, with a lot of options to go for both.

For neighbouring towns, we see vowels shift about, followed by changes in voicing and stop vs fricative state, until further around the Ikshan, Great Lake, some words become unrecognizable in spoken form but relatively understandable in what is, at the time of this study (in the eleventh and twelfth year of Arami) share a common phono-logographic biliteral writing system with root words that dialects and even unrelated languages approach with varying strategies for most of the NivLis, lands around the Great Lake. Practices do shift between generations however, and with the amazing work of the keepers of the Fambesar, lived tales, one is able to notice trends even as simple as the difference between the stables of the elders (Danekhis) and that of the current generation (Mageba).

Yivalkes’ tongue has 3 numbers-agency-conflation, 4 cases along with a radical stem, a hard to separate use of verb, noun, and adjective, and a lot of leeway in interpretation that can be clarified with the use of a plethora of postpositions, with a usually S.(C.)O.V. order, where V.(C.)O. when the subject is pronominally included in the verb, S.(C.)V.O. denotes an indefinite object, and where S.(C.)O. is the most common form when dealing with phrases for which the verb is unnecessary and understood. Verb are few and far between. The C, if present, is the causer that makes the subject do their thing, if there is any.

Biliterals are remnants of old symbols that were slotted and parsed into a 8 by 8 set of sounds that sort of mirror each other in a 4 by 4 manner.

The biliteral guides the phoneme for sure, but learning the actual way to pronounce novel or obscure words means there is a need for phonetic markers from time to time, especially at school. In most cases, they would otherwise be omitted. The problem is those phonetic marker also tend to be ambivalent, especially in regional uses of the character set, and over a few generations.

The eight root sounds are always in pair for a total of 64 biliterals. B, D, G, L, W, Y, X, N. While those sound pairs are considered as consonants only, the W, Y, and X (glottal stop really) can and will definitely often be their equivalent u, i and a.

B can be pronounced p, or v, f, or ph. Same goes for D (t, th, s, z), G (K, ɣ, zh, sh), L (ɾ, ɻ), N (m, ŋ). X can be pronounced h, a, a, e, ɛ, e, the Y as ɨ or ʉ or ɪ or i, the W as u, ɔ, o, a, œ… It's pretty context dependent. 8 canonical sounds, and about… 32 actual sounds? Phonotactics.

• Reduplicated biliterals tend to have the onset as voiceless and ending as voiced with both usually being fricative, like Shazha, or Paba, or Kelger.
• The second written sound in a pair is usually voiced fricative and the first one voiceless stopped like Bz would give Pez.
• N gets thrown around and modified to match with its surroundings,
• Intermediary vowels tend to have a timbre with the most open syllable being the second on three- and two- syllable words.
• L sounds like L at the beginning of words, before a hard consonant, flapped r between vowels, and retroflex r at the end unless after a flapped r where it is L again.
• Words ending in X usually get an e when it's at the THERE case

Biliterals are essentially a historical rebus that is still somewhat relevant for many of the root words, but some words are just alien to the language, are homophones, or simply shorthanded. In simple, the same 64 roots can be used to indicate meaning detached from pronunciation rather than pronunciation alone, and the opposite is just as true.

• When standing alone or at the beginning of a word, the principle shared as a shorthand of the more commonly spoken form. e.g. Yd, the biliteral for Speak, stands in for the more common word Lasbar, which could be written with LdBl.
• Within a word or at its end, rarely is pronounced but provides meaning to what came first, especially when facing obscure words or common near homophone. It is often omitted when the meaning is clear, or when phonetic markers are in use.
• A reduplicated logogram (two dots at the bottom, or three dots on top) is both meant and pronounced once.