Phonology

The consonants are common to most European languages, though exact articulation of certain forms may vary from region to region. For example, the palatal sibilants (actually post-alveolars, ideally) are often realized as actual palatals in parts of Eastern Europe, while in the Nordic countries they may be closer to a retroflex. Similarly, the rhotic consonant (r), as in most languages, can have different realizations from region to region and even from town to town.

The vowels are rather simplistic: a classic five-vowel system. There is no distinction of vowel length, and no nasalization. There are no diphthongs or syllabic consonants.

Consonants	Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Dorsal		Vowels	Front	Back
Stop	p · b	t · d		k · g		High	i	u
	/p/ · /b/	/t/ · /d/		/k/ · /ɡ/			/i/	/u/
Affricate			tc · dj			Med	e	o
			/ʧ/ · /ʤ/				/e/	/o/
Fricative	f · v	s · z	c · j	· h		Low	a
	/f/ · /v/	/s/ · /z/	/ʃ/ · /ʒ/	/x/			/a/
Nasal	m ·	n ·		(n)
	/m/	/n/		/ŋ/
Lateral		l ·
		/l/
Tap/Trill		r ·
		/r/ [ɾ]
Approximant	w ·		y ·
	/w/		/j/

See Basics > Orthography & Romanization for more information.

All words must have a C onset. A standard root is (s)CVC, (s)CRVC, (s)CVRC, (s)CVCR, or (s)CVSC, where (s) can only be followed by p, t, or k; where R is a glide or liquid (r, l, y, w); and where S is a sonorant (r, l, y, w, m, n). The maximum root is CCVSCR, e.g. vringl-. The following is a comprehensive list of all licit word-initial onsets:

	+∅	+l	+r	+w	+y	s+
p	p	pl	pr		py	sp
t	t		tr	tw		st
k	k	kl	kr	kw	ky	sk
b	b	bl	br	bw	by
d	d		dr	dw
g	g	gl	gr	gw	gy
tc	tc
dj	dj
f	f	fl	fr		fy
s	s			sw
c	c
h	h			hw	hy
v	v	vl	vr
z	z
j	j¹
m	m			mw	my
n	n			nw	ny
l	l			lw	ly
r	r
w	w					(sw)
y	y

¹ Initial ⟨j⟩ only occurs as an onset for suffixes to convert them into standalone words, e.g. -anglu ‘-Vgon’ → janglu ‘polygon’.

All vowels must be separated by a C; i.e., there are no sequential vowels and no diphthongs.

Medial (intervocalic) consonant clusters can be:

	+∅	+l	l+	+r	r+	+w	+y	N+	N+l	N+r	N+w	s+	c+	s+r	s+l
p	p	pl	lp	pr	rp		py	mp	mpl	mpr		sp
t	t		lt	tr	rt	tw		nt		ntr		st	ct	str
k	k	kl	lk	kr	rk	kw	ky	nk	nkl	nkr	nkw	sk	ck	skr	skl
b	b	bl	lb	br	rb	bw	by	mb	mbl	mbr
d	d		ld	dr	rd	dw		nd		ndr
g	g	gl	lg	gr	rg	gw	gy	ng	ngl	ngr	ngw
tc	tc		ltc		rtc			ntc
dj	dj		ldj		rdj			ndj
f	f	fl	lf	fr	rf		fy
s	s	sl	ls		rs	sw		ns
c	c		lc		rc
h	h	hl	lh	hr	rh	hw	hy
v	v	vl	lv	vr	rv	vw	vy
z	z	zl	lz		rz	zw		nz
j	j		lj		rj
m	m					mw	my					sm
n	n					nw	ny					sn
l	l					lw	ly					(sl)
r	r					rw	ry
w	w				(rw)								(sw)
y	y		(ly)		(ry)			(ny)

There are no consonantal codas permitted in Europic.

For the most part, and by design, most phonemes in the language are identical to their actual phonetic realization. However, as with any language, there is some slight variation.

• /r/ - [r] → [ɾ] / C[+dnt]___. That is to say, /r/ is tapped ([ɾ]) rather than trilled ([r]) after a dental consonant, which, within the phonotactics of the language, is limited to the clusters /tr/ [tɾ] and /dr/ [dɾ].
• /n/ - [n] → [ŋ] / ___C[+vlr]. This is to say, /n/ is velarized ([ŋ]) before a velar consonant i.e. [ŋɡ], [ŋk]. (This is such a common allophone among European languages that /ŋ/ is included here as a phoneme, though a more scrutinous analysis would probably show that it is not.)

Stress falls on the penultimate syllable of polysyllabic words, or on the only syllable of monosyllabic words. Most monosyllabic prepositions, particles, and conjunctions are not stressed.

Europic is not tonal.