The Arden Reference Grammar

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Consonants

The following table of phonemes may need adjustments. The phonemic and classificatory status of various sounds of the language is still being investigated.

The Arden script is mostly phonemic. /f v/ are labiodental, while the other labial sounds are bilabial. All of the apical consonants are dental, except /r/, which is alveolar, but /n l/ usually assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant. /c g/ are velar, while the other dorsal sounds are palatal. In the Western dialect, /c/ is pronounced as a dental affricate before the front vowels /i e/ and the diphthong /ei/.

/þ/ (also written /th/) and /s/, and /ð/ (also written /dh/) and /z/ are alternate spellings for the same couple of phonemes (namely, the voiceless and voiced dental spirants). /s/ and /z/ are only used in consonant clusters, while /þ/ and /ð/ elsewhere.

In the Eastern School script, /k/ is generally substituted for /c/, because in the Eastern dialect this sound is always velar. In borrowed words, the Western script uses /qui/ and /que/ to represent [ki] and [ke] respectively. In Western script, these trigraphs are only used when they reflect the original spelling of the word.

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