K'atul language

[Omzinesý]

K'atul is my newest project. I have big problems with its morphosyntax but I like the phonological ideas.

[Omzinesý]

consonants
t' k' q'
p t k q
ɬ s χ h
ɮ z ʁ
m n
ʋ j

Full vowels
i ɨ u
e o
ɑ

Reduced vowels
ɪ ʊ
ʌ

Vowels can appear long short and nasalized.

There is a simple tonal system of a high and low tone. Each syllable has one tone. K'atul is a prototypical tone language - no pitch accent language - where neither tone is unmarked or neutral.

Phonotactics

CGVC

Any consonant (C) can start a syllable.
The glides (G) are /ʋ j/.
V is a vowel.
Fricatives /ɬ s χ h ɮ z ʁ/ are the only allowed coda consonants.


Phonetic rules

1)

/hj/ -> [ç]
/hv/ -> [f]

Causes of analysing them as clusters
- They don't appear as codas like other fricatives.
- They cannot be followed by glides.

2)

Stops /p' p t' t k' k q' q/ are lenited when followed by a long vowel. (I'm not sure if they should be lenited after nasal vowels too.)

/p t' t k' k q' q/ -> [ɸ θ' θ x' x χ' χ] / V:_

Historically K'atul had a Germanic-style system where a long vowel was preceded by a short consonant and a short vowel by a geminate. Later
i) single stops lenited
ii) gemites become single consonants

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Tone

K'atul has a simple tone system where each syllable has either high or low tone. The high tone is marked with an accent. The tone bearing unit is a syllable unlike in many other languages where it is a mora. Vowel length or reduction does not affect tone, unless reduction goes to full elision.
Some suffixes have no inherent tone. Then the last tone of the stem spreads to the suffix(es). Lexical morphemes always have inherent tones.

Stress, and vowel length and reduction

In a language where tone is distinctive by itself, pitch cannot be a feature through which stress realizes.
K'atul has a fixed initial stress. Theoretically, the simplest feature defining stress is strength. The stressed syllable is stronger than the following syllables. The difference of strengths between stressed and unstressed syllables isn't though too big.
Stress however affects vowel reduction. In the stressed/first syllable, the vowels are full, i.e. unreduced. There are six distinct qualities of vowels and two lengths, short and long. In unstressed syllables, the historical short vowels have reduced and historical long vowels have shortened. In unstressed syllables, K'atul can have six full vowels or three reduced vowels. (Lenition of following consonants still happens after historical long vowels.)