Middle Orcish language

Middle Orcish was the language of the Orcish Kingdom in its days of decline, as well as shortly after its collapse. It evolved from Early Orcish.

Evolution from Early Orcish

 * /ɨ/ becomes silent, /ɨː/ merges with /iː/
 * /a/ becomes silent when between a word-initial non-nasal consonant and a rhotic consonant. For example, the word-initial /saʀ/ becomes /sʀ/ (which further becomes /χʀ~ʀ̥/)
 * /u/ becomes silent between any non-rhotic and non-nasal consonant and /w/, creating new clusters such as /pw/, /bw/, /tw/, /dw/, /sw/, /zw/, /t͡ɕw/, /d͡ʑw/, /ɕw/, /ʑw/, /kw/, /gw/, /qw/ and /ɢw/
 * The last four of them become completely new phonemes: /kʷ gʷ qʷ ɢʷ/
 * The so called "echo vowels" are deleted - for example, /pirʲidu/ becomes /prʲidu/, /qaʀati/ becomes /qʀati/, etc.
 * Word-final short vowels are deleted too, turning the earlier /prʲidu/ into /prʲid/. Word-final long vowels are shortened.
 * The palatalized alveolar trill /rʲ/ becomes a retroflex flap /ɽ/
 * The word-initial /sʀ/ cluster - which itself was caused by deletion of several vowels - becomes /χʀ~ʀ̥/
 * /a aː/ develops into /ɒ ɒː/ after /q qʷ ɢ ɢʷ ʀ/, /æ æː/ everywhere else

Consonants

 * /l/ only existed in loanwords
 * The coda nasal /n/ had the following allophones
 * labial [m] before /p b/
 * alveolar [n] before /t d s z ɽ/
 * palatal [ɲ] before /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʃ ʒ j/
 * velar [ŋ] before /k g w/
 * uvular [ɴ] before /q ɢ ʀ/
 * Both [ʀ̥] and [χ] only exist as parts of the word-initial cluster /χʀ/, which developed from an earlier /sʀ/.

Vowels
The language also has four diphthongs: /æi æu ɒi ɒu/.