Etrancoasti dialects

The Etrancoasti language has two major dialects: the Northern Dialect and Southern Dialect. The difference is mainly pronounciation, but it does not render them mutually unintelligible - the two dialects are still 99% mutually intelligible with each other, and any unintelligibility originates in slang exclusive to that dialect rather than pronunciation.

Etrancoasti also has considerable cross-dialectal variation.

Northern Etrancoasti

 * Guttural R: is pronounced as a uvular trill / approximant . The syllabic  or  is pronounced as . The geminated  is always a uvular trill.
 * is typically realized as a velarized, except when following close vowels.
 * is realized as a back, just like in Standard Etrancoasti.
 * is lowered to before the sonorants, in opposition to Southern and Standard where it is lowered only to -

Southern Etrancoasti
The accent of Southern Etrancoast shares a lot of features with the Etrandish Copperport dialect, such as the retroflex articulation of R, alveolo-palatal shibilants and affrication of alveolar stop + clusters. It is not known if it was Southern Etrancoasti influencing the Copperport dialect or the other way around.


 * Thick R: is pronounced as a retroflex flap  in the syllable onset, a retroflex approximant  in the syllable coda (except before stop consonants, where it's still a flapped ). The syllabic  or  is pronounced as an R-coloured vowel . The geminated  is an apico-alveolar trill . The retroflex articulation of  is a feature shared with the Etrandish Copperport dialect.
 * Word-initial may be also a trilled, but the retroflex flap  is also used.
 * is pronounced as a clear apico-alveolar . In coda-positions, it may be retracted to a retroflex place of articulation.
 * are lamino-alveolar.
 * are affricated to, another feature shared with the Etrandish Copperport dialect.
 * are alveolo-palatal, another feature shared with the Etrandish Copperport dialect.
 * is typically realized as a central, in opposition to the Standard and Northern.
 * is lowered to before the sonorants, just like in Standard Etrancoasti, in opposition to the Northern.

Cross-dialectal variation
Some variation in Etrancoasti pronunciation transcends dialectal boundaries. Examples of variation independent of dialects include:
 * The palatalization of the velar before front vowels and
 * In Standard Etrancoasti, they are meant to be consistently pronounced as purely velar . This pronunciation however is restricted to upper-class speakers, and middle-class speakers, many of whom are bilingual and can also speak Etrandish.
 * The use of palatalized velar is currently the most widespread pronunciation in both the North and the South, although  are usually replaced by.
 * The use of post-palatal / pre-velar is also relatively widespread, but declining.
 * The use of purely palatal is currently the rarest pronunciation, but getting more and more widespread in both the North and the South. Within one or two centuries, it may go from being the rarest to the most widespread.
 * Labio-palatalization:
 * are meant to be consistently realized as in Standard Etrancoasti
 * In both the North and the South, the majority of speakers realize as labio-palatalized velar  and  as a labio-velar  before front vowels.
 * Speakers who completely palatalize to  before front vowels will typically realize  as  before front vowels.  may be even coalesced into  instead of  - for example,  may be pronounced as  instead of.
 * Vowel reduction: the shift of word-final and  to  is not mainstream yet, but getting increasingly widespread in both the North and the South.

Etrandish accent
A large number burghers in Waterburcht and Yrvhaven have Etrandish origins, and are bilingual in Etrancoasti and Etrandish. This also influences the way they speak Etrancoasti.
 * The unaspirated plosives are consistently voiced, unlike in normal Etrancoasti, where they are only voiced word-medially, voiceless word-initially and word-finally.
 * Native Etrandish-speakers have difficulties with the voiced velar fricative because Etrandish does not contain it, so they either devoice it  or fortify it . In the speech of bilingual Etrandish-Etrancoasti speakers who have lived in Etrancoast for generations,  varies between a stop and a fricative . In normal Etrancoasti, it is intended to be a weak fricative or approximant with limited friction.
 * is pronounced as flap/trill before vowels, approximant  when not followed by a vowel.  or  is realized as an R-coloured vowel.
 * The long vowels are typically pronounced, in opposition to the native and correct
 * Tendency to consistently pronounce as, without any of the allophones.
 * Difficulty with distinguishing between and, typically pronouncing both as.
 * The absence of palatalization. are consistently velar.