Phonology

Phonemic inventory
The Taranvor Standard Dialect contains twenty-nine to thirty phonemes, comprised of nineteen or twenty consonants and ten vowels.

Consonants
There are six stops, two nasal stops, nine fricatives, one lateral fricative, one approximant, and one lateral approximant.

 The Taran consonants are usually inscribed as following:

Sound                    /   t d    k    g q    ɢ    m n    f    v s   z    ʃ    ʒ    x    ɤ h    ɬ    ʁ l   /

Transliteration        <  t d    k    g q    gh  m    n    f v    s   z sh   zh  xh x   h    hl r    l   >

Dialects vary slightly in consonantal phonemic inventory. Most dialects outside the Taranvor lakes region have also lost the distinction between [ɢ] and [ʁ]. The frequent lenition of the uvular plosive to [ɢ] triggered an interpretation this and the historical uvular fricative were the same phoneme. The Port Karum dialect has begun to treat [ʧ] and [ʤ] as phonemes, and as with many dialects, contains dialectical variations on the voiced uvular fricative.

There are great dialectical variations of pronunciation with phonemic /ʁ/, which may be realized as [ʁ], [χ], [ɰ], [ʀ], and even [r] in word final positions. Several linguistic theories accounting for the variation have arisen.

The great variation of the realization of [ʁ] might have been caused by an original /ɹ/ contained an allophonic variant [r]. Over time, the [ɹ] was moved backward to a velar or uvular placement while the allophone [r] remained. Over time, the backed phoneme became a trill in all contexts, varying between [ʀ] and [r], or it took on frication and gained an [ʁ] allophone.

By another account, /ʁ/ has changed to remain distinct with other pharyngeal plosives. Historically the Taran language was supposed to contain both voiced and voiceless uvular fricative phonemes, but over time was reduced to a single phoneme which assimilated voicing by context. [χ] was realized before or after a consonant, [ʁ] elsewhere. The voiced counterpart of the phoneme was and still is often produced as a velar approximant [ɰ], and this pronunciation is constant in many dialects, such as the Port Karum dialect. In other situations, to contrast between [ɢ] and [ʁ], the latter became produced as the uvular trill [ʀ]. In the north near Shenwarii, whose language has [r], the coronal rhotic trill has been integrated as an allophone or the uvular rhotic.

Vowels
The vowel system consists of five basic vowels which have a long-short distinction for a total of ten vowels.

High       i   i:        u   u:

Mid        e  e:        o o:

Low       ɑ  ɑ:

Sound                   /   i i:       e   e:   ɑ  ɑ: u   u:            o o:   /

Transliteration    <  i ii/ie   e   ae  a   aa   u   uu/uCC   o   ou  >

Vowel variations occur in several regions, the most radical shifts occurring due to contact with the Shenvaan language in the south. These dialects frequently have added a diphthong [ɑɪ]. Other dialects retain the presence of the vowel [ʌ], which has been lost in most dialects, including the Standard Taranvor Dialect.

Some dialects always realize /ɑ/ as [ə], while other dialects like the Standard Taran Dialect only realize a [ə] in specific contexts of reduction.

Allophones
Allophonic variation depends upon dialect.