Western Halfling language

The Western Halfling language is a collection of mutually intelligible Halfling dialects spoken in the Kingdom of Froturn. It is an oral language without a written form - however, the Froturn Standard is a written standard based off the Western Halfling dialects. As a rule of thumb, Western Halfling dialects are phonologically more innovative than their Eastern counterparts.

Consonants

 * The consonantal system of Halfling traditionally divides consonants into two categories: Broad and Slender. The earlier can only appear before and after back and central vowels (never before or after front vowels), while the latter can appear before and after any vowel.
 * There are two exceptions to this rule: and, despite being classified as Broad consonants, also appear before front vowels.
 * Consonant clusters can only be formed from either broad consonants or slender consonants, with no mixing of the two types allowed. In cases of a type clash, the clusters must harmonize.
 * Word-final syllables can only be formed from either broad consonants or slender consonants, with no mixing of the two types allowed. In cases of a type clash, the clusters must harmonize.
 * and are not distinguished anymore in any variant of Halfling. Both of them are generally pronounced as an approximant  in all positions.
 * Under the influence of High Elven are often pronounced as labiodental  rather than the recommended bilabial.
 * cannot appear word-initially or geminated. Both word-initially and when geminated, they are replaced by
 * can only appear word-initially, or between two vowels. It cannot appear after nasal vowels.
 * Nasal vowel +  clusters are usually pronounced as nasal vowel +   clusters instead. For example,  and  can be respectively pronounced as  and.
 * Some dialects may have a glottal stop or a glottal fricative  as a reflex for the Proto-Halfling . Other dialects will have  or, or have completely removed it.

Monophthongs

 * The open front vowels exist in only a few of the most conservative dialects and have disappeared in every other variant of the language, having shifted to  in all positions, except after, where they became  instead.
 * The long open front vowels are being reintroduced and starting to replace  as a result of enroaching High Elven influence.  remains untouched, however.
 * Nasal vowels lose their nasalization if they are proceeded by a nasal+vowel cluster.
 * Nasal vowels tend to be dissimilated into vowel + nasal clusters before stop consonants and rhotic consonants, turning, , , , , , , into , , , , , , ,  respectively. This doesn't effect nasal vowels word-finally or before other kinds of consonants.

Comparison with Eastern Halfling
Western Halfling was heavily influenced by Classical High Elven, Vulgar High Elven and Middle High Elven - in contrast with Eastern Halfling, which was instead heavily influenced by Dwarven, Old Etrandish and Middle Etrandish (though it did end up borrowing High Elven loanwords indirectly via Middle Etrandish).

This difference also manifests itself in both the vocabulary and the pronounciation.

Vocabulary
As stated previously, Western Halfling have taken on many loanwords from High Elven, in contrast with Eastern Halfling, which was mainly influenced by Dwarven and Etrandish. Western Halfling also created many calques based on High Elven words, while Eastern Halfling took calques from Dwarven. Nevertheless, not all differences in their vocabularies can be attributed to the different sources of loanwords and calques: several words with common origins take on different meanings. As a rule of thumb, Eastern Halfling tends to be more conservative and preserve the original meanings of words, while Western Halfling has evolved more.

Pronounciation
In the Halfling languages, the voiced plosives historically had fricative allophones  in postvocalic positions (but only after oral vowels, not nasal vowels) in both varieties of Halfling. Influences from foreign languages eventually made these sounds phonemic in both varieties. Nevertheless, not all of these new fricatives were preserved forever.

In both varieties of Halfling, merged into. Eastern Halfling preserved the remaining voiced fricatives, while Western Halfling lenited them even further, merging into  and never regaining them, with  being the only remaining voiced fricative in Western Halfling.

Both varieties of Halfling lost the voiceless dental fricatives of Proto-Halfling, but Eastern Halfling eventually regained them via foreign influence, but only in loanwords. Western Halfling never regained the dental fricatives.

Eastern Halfling also has an extra set of front rounded vowels that are only present in Etrandish and Dwarven loanwords. Needless to say, these extra vowels are absent from Western Halfling.

Plains dialect
Traditionally spoken on the plains of North-Eastern Froturn, its speakers now also speak North-Eastern High Elven. Its characteristic feature is the pronunciation of the slender as alveolo-palatal, often conflating  with. A minority of speakers even shift to.

Northern Ranghi
Traditionally spoken on the northern parts of the mountain range that separates Etrand from Froturn, its speakers now also speak North-Eastern High Elven. Its characteristic feature is the merger of as. A minority of speakers even pronounce as.

Southern Ranghi †
Historically the dialect of Noldó Ranga and the surrounding area, it is now extinct, as the local Halflings eventually switched to South-Eastern dialect of High Elven - that is not to say that the Halfling language is gone from that city and general area, as Noldó Ranga was the at the forefront of the creation of the Froturn Halfling standard, and one of the first places reclaimed for the revived language.

Character features of the Southern Ranghi speech were the palatalization of the back vowels to  after  and other slender consonants, vocalization of  to, the complete elision - instead of mere lenition - of voiced non-sibilant fricatives, and the contraction of the vowel clusters formed from such elisions. All these features are absent from the present-day Halfling-language speech of the locals, as they speak the Froturn Halfling standard, not the extinct dialect.

Due to Noldó Ranga's important position as a trade hub, the traditional, now-extinct dialect had extensive language contact with various other languages, causing it to be rich in loanwords, chiefly from High Elven, Wood Elven, Old Etrandish, Neressan, Kobold and the Swamp Lizardman languages. This put into the same category as  and, allowing it to be present before front vowels in spite of being a broad consonant, albeit only in loanwords.