Kobold language

The Kobold language is the most spoken language amongst the Goblin languages, and is also the only exant Goblin language that's considered relevant: the Koblin language is presumed extinct, while the Gaildaurn language is endangered, due to the fact that slavery highly accelerates the enroaching of Keldorni Etrandish on Gaildaurn. The Kobold language continues to thrive and be spoken in Brutang and Empire of Neressa, as well as amongst Goblin diasporas elsewhere (except in Keldorn). A specific variant of the Kobold language, Charnek Kobold is spoken in the Free City of Charnek.

The Kobold endonym ->  gave rise to the Middle Etrandish "cobold", being retained into current Etrandish  and the Etrancoasti "cobold".

Evolution from Proto-Goblin

 * The original became, while  remained untouched
 * The original diphthongs became.
 * coalesced into new labio-velar and palato-velar sounds . The palato-velar eventually evolved into
 * coalesced into.
 * Loanwords from Old Orcish introduced into the language
 * At one point, the voiceless stops became aspirated.
 * Unlike in Orcish, the voiced stops never lost their voicing, remaining fully voiced in all environments.

Phonology
The Kobold language has 20 native consonant phonemes, and two consonants that only appear in loanwords: and.

Consonants

 * and appear only in loanwords.
 * and are not phonemes on their own, but allophones of  before  and  respectively.
 * can appear in any positions, except word-initially.
 * could traditionally only appear word-initially and between two vowels, but influence from Orcish enabled it in other positions too.

Vowels
The Kobold language has 5 vowel phonemes and 6 dipthongs, no vowel length distintion, no gemination, no tones.

Monophthongs

 * are true mid

Ogre accents
Ogres never had a language of their own - those Ogres who do not live under Orcish rule are primarily monolingual Kobold-speakers. Those who live in Brutang under Orcish rule are mainly bilingual Orcish-Kobold speakers, usually (but not always) having Orcish as their native language. Despite never having had their own language, they still have some unique words that only Ogres use, and their own accents when speaking both languages.

Typical features of the Ogre accent in Kobold are:
 * Pronounciation of the aspirate as an affricate
 * Pronounciation of as a long alveolar trill  and  as a short alveolar trill.
 * Laxing of the vowels to, and lengthening of them  in non-final open syllables and before voiced stops. This leads to  turning into.
 * Simplification of the diphthongs to the long monophthong
 * Simplification of the diphthongs to the long monophthong
 * Simplification of the diphthongs to the long monophthong

Orcish accents
While unlike the Ogres, the Orcs have their own language, the fact that they have always been outnumbered by Goblins and forced to deal with them necessiated bilingualism amongst the Orcs. Orcs speak Kobold with their own characteristics accents, whose features are:
 * Realization of as
 * Devoicing of the modally voiced stops word-initially and word-finally . The modally voiceless stops are still kept distinct, as they are aspirated in both Kobold and Orcish.
 * The five monophthongs are typically realized as laxed . In non-final open syllables, they are typically enlonged and tensed.
 * The six diphthongs are typically realized as.
 * The velar stops usually become uvular  before the non-high vowels, remaining velar  before the high vowels.