Sak language

The Sak langauge is the second branch of the Limjiang language family besides Shár. It is currently official in the six Sak states - Ryung, Shit, Räl, Gyô, and Mô - which are all vassals of the Shár Empire.

Syllable structure

 * All syllables must have a vowel within it.
 * Initial consonants are optional. No syllable may start with the glottal stop /ʔ/.
 * Optionally, a syllable may also have a glide /j/ or /w/ in it.
 * Medial /w/ may only exist after /kʰ k h/, and these combinations coalesce into [kʷʰ kʷ~gʷ f]
 * Medial /j/ may not exist after /tʰ t sʰ s t͡ʃʰ t͡ʃ ʃʰ/ - historically, /tʰj tj sʰj/ merged with /t͡ʃʰ t͡ʃ ʃʰ/, while /sj/ never existed in native Sak vocabulary.
 * /kʰ k h/ + /j/ coalesce into [kʲʰ kʲ~gʲ ç]
 * A syllable may optionally end with a consonant /l m n ŋ p t k ʔ/.
 * Coda consonants may not follow long vowels, as those came from historical diphthongs or a now-lost coda /s/ - /ɛː ɔː/ came from /æi̯ ɑu̯/ and /æs ɑs/, /eː oː/ came from /ei̯ ou̯/ and /es os/, /iː ɨː uː/ came from /is ɨs us/.

Consonants

 * /r/ and /l/ are not separate phonemes but allophones of the same phoneme: the liquid phoneme /r~ɾ~l/ is pronounced as a flap [ɾ] in the syllable onset, a lateral approximant [l] in the syllable coda. Many male speakers also use the trilled [r], especially in aggressive speech and cursing.
 * The lateral /l/ tends to be heavily velarized [ł].
 * When a syllable ends with /l/ and the following syllable begins with /r/, the combination may be pronounced either [łː] or [rː], depending on speaker preference.
 * Out of all the consonants, only /l m n ŋ p t k ʔ/ may appear in the syllable coda.
 * The unaspirated /p t t͡ʃ k s/ become voiced [b d d͡ʒ g z] medially.
 * The combination of /kʰ k/ with /j/ and /w/ coalesce into palato-velar [kʲʰ kʲ~gʲ] and labio-velar [kʷʰ kʷ~gʷ] stops.
 * The combination of /h/ with /j/ and /w/ coalesce into dorso-palatal [ç] and labiodental [f] fricatives.
 * The coda-position stops /p t k/ are phonologically unaspirated, and become voiced [b d g] when followed by a syllable that starts with a vowel, nasal or unaspirated stop (which also becomes voiced).
 * The coda stop /t/ becomes [d͡ʒ] when the following syllable starts with /j/.

Vowels

 * The long near-open back vowel /ʌ̜ː~ɔː/ is often not fully rounded.
 * In Southern Sak, it is pronounced as a fully rounded [ɔː].
 * In Northeastern Sak, it is pronounced as a compressed [ʌᵝː].
 * In Northwestern Sak, it is pronounced as a weakly rounded [ʌ̜ː].