TriCons

Hi all,

While unable to use a computer for 3 days, I worked on a project from a
couple years ago involving triconsonantal roots. I've made more progress
this time than before, but I have doubts that this will ever be a good
artlang.

Nevertheless, I've got a preliminary phonology and a sort of orthography to
go with it. I considered other romanizations, such as a transliteration of
the native script which is probably an abugida or an abjad. However, the
native script doesn't exist yet. I also considered a purely phonemic
approach. But I like this better.

The vowel letters are:
    |i|, |e|, |a|, |o|, |u|, |ê|, |â|, |ô|

which are also phonemic and are used as follows:
    * |i|, |u| are used for [i], [u] at the start of a word, and [i:],
      [u:] otherwise;
    * |e|, |a|, |o| are used for [E:], [a:], [O:] before any consonant
      followed by a vowel, and [e], [3], [o] otherwise;
    * |ê|, |â|, |ô| are used for [E:], [a:], [O:] and occur only at the
      end of a word;
    * |'| is used for |@|, a non-phonemic schwa.

Note that any vowel diacritic can be used in place of the circumflexes. If
none are available, the letters are double instead (<ee>, <aa>, <oo>).

These diphthongs also occur:
    |ei|, |eu|, |ai|, |au|, |oi|, |ou|.

The consonant letters, with their usual pronunciations, are:
     |b| [b]   /b/
     |c| [S]   /c/
     |d| [d_d] /d/
     |f| [f]   /p/
     |g| [g]   /g/
     |h| [h]   /h/
     |j| [Z]   /j/
     |k| [k]   /k/
     |l| [l_d] /l/
     |m| [m]   /m/
     |n| [N] before |k| or |g|, else [n_d] /n/
     |p| [p]   /p/
     |q| [?]   /q/
     |r| [r]   /r/
     |s| [s]   /s/
     |t| [t_d] /t/
     |v| [v]   /b/
     |w| [w]   /w/
     |x| [C] after |i| or |e|, else [x]   /h/
     |y| [j]   /y/
     |z| [z]   /z/

The consonant digraphs are:
     |dh| [D]    /d/
     |dj| [dZ)]  /j/
     |dz| [dz)]  /z/
     |gh| [R]    /g/
     |hl| [K:]   /hl/
     |hr| [r_0:] /hr/
     |kh| [X]    /k/
     |tc| [tS)]  /c/
     |th| [T]    /t/
     |ts| [ts)]  /s/
plus a number of double letters representing geminates. The only consonant
trigraphs are for geminate affricates.

You'll have seen that the phoneme for each is also given.

SYLLABLES

The types of syllables are V, CV, CVC, CVV, CCVC, and CCVV, where VV
represents either a diphthong or a phonetically long vowe. The V syllables
can occur only at the start of a word, as can the CCVC and CCVV syllables.
The CV syllables can occur only at the end of a word. This description
would change if C + non-phonemic schwa were considered separate syllables.
Examples:

     ptekh    [pteX]       CCVC
     dkado    [d@ka:.do]   CCVV.CV
     imadhri  [i.maD.ri:]  V.CVC.CVV

Comments, so far???

Djefri