High Elven dialects

The High Elven language is a relatively unified language with much lesser amount of dialectal divergences than other languages, such as Etrandish.

North-Western dialect / Yanus dialect
The North-Western dialect is virtually identical to Standard High Elven in all respects except pronounciation and slang, as the latter is based off the earlier, the Yanus dialect to be specific.


 * While Standard High Elven preserves all vowels the way they are written, the Yanus is somewhat lazier, often deleting the short vowels /ɑ ɛ ɔ ɪ ʊ/ before the sonorants /m n l r/, especially in casual speech.
 * Yanus speech has some slang vocabulary that is absent from the standard language

South-Western Dialect

 * /ɛː/ is preserved
 * /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʃ/ is dissimilated to retroflex [ʈ͡ʂʰ ɖ͡ʐ~ʐ ʂ] before back vowels and /æː/, alveolo-palatal [t͡ɕʰ d͡ʑ~ʑ ɕ] before front vowels other than /æː/.
 * /æː/ is somewhat centralized, [æ̈ː] or even [ɐː]

Deep-Western dialect
Spoken in the westernmost parts of Froturn near the mountains, it is perhaps the most divergent dialect of all of them, the Deep-Western dialect features conservativism and innovations alike.
 * Conservative features:
 * The Middle High Elven /ɛː/ is preserved as a separate sound, pronounced as [ɛː].
 * The Middle High Elven /a aː/ have evolved into [ɐ aː] in this dialect, as opposed to the Standard [ɑ~ɒ æː].
 * /uː/ is pronounced as a fully back [uː] - as opposed to the standard [ʉː] - except after the palatal /d͡ʒ t͡ʃ ʃ j/
 * The voiced plosives /b d d͡z d͡ʒ g/ are consistently pronoucned as stop-consonants [b d d͡z d͡ʒ g], never as fricatives like in other dialects
 * Innovative features:
 * /ʊ uː/ are fronted to [ʏ yː] after /d͡ʒ t͡ʃ ʃ j/
 * /n/ is retracted to [ŋ] unless it's following or followed by a front vowel, where it either remains [n] or gets palatalized (see below).
 * /n/ is palatalized to [ɲ] before /ɪ iː/, but not /ɛ ɛː eː/.
 * /d͡ʒ t͡ʃ/ are depalatalized to [d͡z~z t͡sʰ] before back and central vowels other than /ʊ uː/, but are further palatalized to [d͡ʑ~ʑ t͡ɕ] before front vowels and /ʊ uː/ (which are fronted to [ʏ yː] in this environment).
 * /ʃ/ remains unaffected, consistently pronounced as [ʃ] regardless of the environment.
 * /ɾ/ may be pronounced as a retroflex [ɽ] as opposed to the standard denti-alveolar [ɾ̪], but it's not universal: most speakers of the dialect also use [ɾ̪] rather than [ɽ].
 * The dialect uses the word "noi" (pronounced, written by speakers of the dialect,  by outsiders) for "yes", as opposed to the Standard "lá".

North-Eastern "High Elven High Elven"
Spoken by the High Elves who reside in the area.
 * /ɾ r/ are typically pronounced uvular [ʀ̆ ʀ]
 * syllable-final nasals in closed syllables are always elided, nasalizing the preceding final vowel.
 * Nasalized /æː/ also gets backed to [ɒ̃ː]
 * Nasalized /ɑ/ is consistently rounded [ɒ̃]
 * Other vowels do not change their quality when nasalized.

Halfling dialect
Spoken by the Halflings who reside in the area.
 * The final nasal always gets elided in a closed syllable, but the preceding vowel gets nasalized.
 * Five/ten-vowel system: [a aː e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː i iː u uː] (and their nasalized equivalents) instead of the Standard [ɑ~ɒ æː ɛ eː ɔ oː ɪ iː ʊ ʉː]
 * Lack of medial lention of voiced stops and affricates - they are consistently pronounced as stops/affricates
 * Lack of aspiration on voiceless stops and affricates
 * Just like in Halfling, consonants are dissimilated to velarized and palatalized allophones depending on the quality of the vowel that follows (front vs back).
 * /m p b t d l t͡s d͡z s k g h/ are pronounced [mʲ pʲ bʲ n̠ʲ~ɲ t̠ʲ~c d̠ʲ~ɟ l̠ʲ~ʎ t̪͡s̪ʲ d̪͡z̪ʲ s̪ʲ kʲ gʲ ç] before front vowels, [mˠ pˠ bˠ n̪ˠ t̪ˠ d̪ˠ t̪͡s̪ˠ d̪͡z̪ˠ s̪ˠ k g x] before back vowels
 * /f v/ are pronounced [ɸʲ βʲ] before front vowels, [ɸˠ w] before back vowels
 * /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʃ/ are pronounced [ʈ͡ʂˠ ɖ͡ʐˠ ʂˠ] before back vowels, [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ɕ] before front vowels
 * /ɾ/ is a retroflex [ɽ], /r/ is a uvular [ʀ]

South-Eastern dialect

 * Lack of aspiration on voiceless stops and affricates
 * Lack of medial lention of voiced stops and affricates
 * /t͡s d͡z/ become [θ ð]
 * /tj dj/ become [t͡ʃ d͡ʒ]
 * /eː oː/ are realized as diphthongs [eɪ̯ oʊ̯]
 * The original Middle High Elven /a aː/ have consistently fronted to [æ æː], as opposed to the standard [ɑ~ɒ æː].