Eastern Halfling language

The Eastern Halfling language is a collection of mutually intelligible Halfling dialects spoken in the Kingdom of Etrand. It is an oral language without a written form - however, the Antanath Standard is a written standard based off the Eastern Halfling dialects. As a rule of thumb, Eastern Halfling dialects are phonologically more conservative than their Western 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 (the only exception being loanwords that end with ). In cases of a type clash, the clusters must harmonize.
 * The voiced fricatives originated from the postvocalic lenition of the corresponding stops, therefore do not appear word-initially or after nasal vowels in native Halfling words. They do appear word-initially and after nasal vowels in loanwords though.
 * 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 other local languages (such as High Elven and Etrandish), 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.

Vowels

 * 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 front rounded vowels appear only in loanwords from Dwarven and Etrandish. Monolingual speakers have troubles with these sounds, and typically either break them into, unround them to  or back them to . The front rounded vowels are absent altogether from the Antanath Standard, in spite of it being based on Eastern Halfling.
 * 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 Western Halfling
Eastern Halfling was heavily influenced by Dwarven, Old Etrandish and Middle Etrandish, in contrast with Western Halfling, which was instead heavily influenced by Classical High Elven, Vulgar High Elven and Middle High Elven (though Eastern Halfling 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) 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.

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.