Dwarven Koiné

Dwarven Koiné is the closest equivalent to a standard variant of the Dwarven langauge, created by an amalgamation of the most influential dialects, with influence from the conservative Temple Dwarven.

The Classical Koiné

 * The twenty allophones of original four vowels of Old Dwarven become phonemic.
 * - previously pronounced as - become the new
 * - previously pronounced as - become the new
 * - previously pronounced as - become the new . They retain their pharengyalized pronounciations. Despite actually being front vowels,  were treated as back vowels in all the shifts that followed.
 * The dark dorsal approximant becomes silent, helping to phonemicize the word-initial vowels.
 * The original became postalveolar, leaving only the neutral  as alveolar.
 * The original three categories of consonants - dark, neutral, light - contract to just two: dark and light. Previously neutral consonants become light before front vowels, become dark otherwise. The only exception to this is the dorsal series, where the dark unconditionally merge into the neutral  instead. However, the original  do shift to  before front vowels.
 * The end result was a consonant inventory that consists of


 * Lenition: the original voiced stops developed fricative allophones  in post-vocalic positions. In the same positions, the original voiceless stops  became voiced.
 * Before other voiceless consonants, became fricatives instead . The only exception to this was word-initial consonant clusters like, where the second stop got lenited instead of the first one. For example, the original  became.
 * Certain grammatical contexts also invoked the lenition of voiceless stops to voiceless fricatives instead of voiced stops.
 * All in all, the end result was a consonant inventory consisting of.

Variants
The Dwarven language exists on a continuum, that can be divided into roughly three parts (Dwarven Dialects, Dwarven Koiné, Temple Dwarven), although, being a contiuum, transitions exists. The closest equivalent to a "Standard Dwarven language" would be a point on the continuum halfway between Dwarven Koiné and Temple Dwarven - which is precisely the language being used in official documents.

Dialects
Almost each and every clan has its own unique dialect, however, all of these are, for the most part, mutually intelligible with each other. Nevertheless, differences exists, and the various dialects can be vaguely grouped together based on shared features and geographical proximity.

There are plenty of features all dialects share, both phonological and grammatical, that set them apart from Classical Dwarven.

Koiné
Dwarven Koiné is the colloquial koiné of the Dwarven people, arisen from a mixture of the most influential dialects without displacing any of them. It is used by all Dwarves when communicating with other Dwarves who are from a different clan, therefore speaking a different dialect natively. In addition to that, Dwarven Koiné - in sharp contrast with the purest forms of Temple Dwarven - is also enriched by loanwords from the various foreign languages the Dwarves have come into contact with, most prominently Etrandish and High Elven (largerly indirectly and by Etrandish proxy) - after all, being under Etrandish suzerainty makes the absorbtion of Etrandish loanwords inevitable.

Unlike Temple Dwarven, Dwarven Koiné has for the most part cast off the archaicisms (but not completely) of Old Dwarven, favouring a more modernized grammar that is shared between the majority of dialects.

Temple Dwarven
Temple Dwarven is a highly conservative variant of the Dwarven language, which in its purest form is very close to being essentially Old Dwarven with modernized pronounciation (and written in the contemporary Dwarven script, rather than the Old Dwarven script). It is full of archaicisms, and largerly kept pure from loanwords. The purest and most classical forms of Temple Dwarven are largerly only used in religious writings, religious rituals, conservative poetry and music, serving as the liturgical language of the Dwarven religion. A somewhat less pure version of Temple Dwarven - one that tolerates loanwords for modern concepts, often teethering on being halfway between Temple Dwarven and Koiné - is used in official documents, as well as a "posh language" by the upper strata of Dwarven society.