Phoneme inventory
The vowels of Medzor are:
front vowels: i, í, ü, û, e, é, ö, ô, ä, â
middle vowels: a, á
back vowels: o, ó, u, ú
á, â, é, ô, í, û, ó, ú, û are long vowels.
ü, û, ö, ô, o, ó, u, ú are rounded vowels.
The consonants of Medzor are: b, c, č, d, dž, f, g, h, ch, k, l, m, n, ng, ň, p, r, ř, s, š, t, v, w, z, ž. They have the same values as in Czech, v is labiodental and w is bilabial, ng is the velar nasal. The latter is written n before g and k.
Phonotactics
Consonant clusters are legal under the following conditions:
There is a syllable boundary between the consonants or the cluster of maximum two consonants is word-final or word initial:
VC.CV or
VCC.CV
VCC#
In the case of VCC.CV, VCC# and #VCC the two consonants in the same syllable must be ordered according to sonority: liquid – nasal – fricative – stop. Two consonants of the same category are not allowed. A category could be ommited.
The consonant cluster is uniform in voicing, i.e., all consonants are either voiced or all unvoiced, regardless of the syllable boundary.
The consonant cluster is uniform in softness, i.e., if either all consonants are hard, or all soft (soft consonants were ž, š and the newly formed č and dž).
Illegal clusters which don't resolve with mergers are broken up by an e or ö added after the second consonant:
CC.CV → VC.Cy.CV
CC# → C.Cy#
"y" marks the position of the e/ö.
A VC.CV can always be made legal by assimilation.
Morphophonology
In this section, the phonological processes which are still active in Modern Medzor are described. These are important in order to correctly inflect and derive words. For more information see Evolution from Sinal to Medzor.
n + g, k > ň
m + g, k > ň
n, m, k, g + ň > ň
t, d + s > c
t, d + š > č
d, t + z > dz
d, t + ž > dž
r, ř > ř
All of the above fusions happen regardless of the relative position of the consonants.
r + š, z, š, ž > ř
If both consonants are identical or only differ in voicing and or softness, the two consonants merge into one, voicing is the same as the second consonant and soft if any of the two consonants was soft.
Assimilation of voicing
If a consonant cluster includes consonants of different voicings, then the voicing/devoicing of the last consonant spreads across the whole cluster.
Note: h works as a voiced consonant and ch as an unvoiced one. ch is the unvoiced counterpart of h. m, n, ň, m, l, r, v, w are themselves unaffected by devoicing. The nasals and liquids also cause voicing.
Assimilation of softness
Soft consonants are š, ž, č, dž, their hard counterparts s, z, c and dz. If consonants of these two types appear in a cluster, the softness spreads on the hard consonants, usually also causing mergers.
Bilabialization of v
The consonant v turns w (bilabial v) in the following environments:
before a consonant and after short back vowel or short a (i.e. not in intervocalic position!)
at the end of the word after a short vowel
after b, m
If after b or m, then the consonants switch places:
bw > wb
mw > wm
Between two consonants, v turns into u, written u.
Then following changes happen after high vowels:
iw > í
üw > û
If an u follows a vowel and w, the u merges with the w. (Vwu → Vw).
Deletion of nasals after vowels
After vowels and before another consonant or at the end of a word, m and n are deleted, lengthening the preceding vowel:
VC[+nasal, -velar]C > V:C
If another nasal follows, then the second nasal remains in place. If a long vowel preceds, the nasal is preserved.
Deletion of h, ch after non-velars
After consonants, which were not velars, the h and ch phonemes dissapear.
Palatalization of velar consonants before front vowels
Velar consonants are palatalised before front vowels i, e, í, é, ü, û, ö, ô:
k > č
g > dž
h > ž
x > š
Lenition of p and b
Before another stop (also m and n) or fricative, p and b turn into f and v:
p → f
b → v
Before f, p is dropped:
pf → f
Deletion of s, z, š, ž, t, d before and after affricates
Before and after affricates (č, c, dz, dž) the consonants s, z, š, ž, t, d were deleted.
Rounding harmonization
Rounded vowels (o, u, ó, ú, ö, ü, ô, û) causes the following vowels in a word to round:
e, ä → ö
é, â → ô
i → ü
í → û
The rounding spreads from the first rounded vowel of the word and stops at the end of the word or at an a or á. The vowel a itself is unaffected by the rounding and doesn’t cause any rounding.
This introduced partial rounding-vowel harmony into the language.
Devoicing of word-codas
Voiced consonants at the end of the word were devoiced (if they have a devoiced counterpart).
Suffixation
If by adding a suffix, two consonants came into contact, the above rules apply. When it still doesn't resolve all conflicts, an -e- is added after the second consonant in a cluster.
If a hiatus appears, then the first vowel is preserved and the second one deleted, except when that first vowel is e or ö. In this case, the rules described in the article on Stems, the section on adding suffixes to highlighted stems should be used (i.e. delete the e/ö if it is a fronted schwa, otherwise delete it), but in colloquial Medzor, the e or ö is almost always deleted (leaving only the second vowel).
If a word ends in a fronted schwa (-e/ö) and the suffix begins with a consonant, than the e/ö is deleted and above rules apply. In colloquial Medzor, the e/ö are deleted even if they don't come from a schwa.
Please note that many suffixes have special forms to be used after a vowel and after a consonant.