Inlis: Phonology and Consequences

In case anyone wonders, there is an actual basis for the vowel groups: Dr. J. C. Wells's lexical sets. The purpose of the sets is to describe phonological differences between dialects. I decided to use them in an attempt to simplify the importation process, since US and British vowels differ considerably. Inlis doesn't follow either of these dialects exclusively. Rather, it's meant to be a pan-English dialect that's closer to creoles than to the rival dialects. Speakers should always sound somewhat foreign and exotic: this is one time neither Received Pronunciation nor General American is welcome.

It should be obvious that a and o are overloaded, especially a. In my dialect, the seven mappings of o are just three distinct vowels--or technically just two. Such phenomena are common.

Still, a is overloaded, and I've tried to reduce the load, so far unsuccessfully. The current mappings seem to be the best.

Probably the most controversial items will be the mappings to o of the LOT, CLOTH, PALM, and THOUGHT sets. From a (Western) US perspective, it would make more sense to map these to a, further overloading that overworked vowel. But I chose o because

1. the sounds are commonly associated with that letter both in the main English dialects and in creoles

2. it's easier to map all of these to a single vowel, and a is already overloaded, while apart from these, o would be somewhat underloaded.

This does lead to some oddities. For example, if I imported wander and wonder directly, wander would become wonda and wonder wanda.

The big weakness is that the mappings make the English tendency toward homonyms even worse, but since I'm trying to rein in synonyms anyway, I can avoid a lot of the problem.

Next time I'll explain a bit about the grammar and importation mechanism.

Inlis: Phonology and Mappings

Vowels and diphthongs

I generally use Spanish vowels as the model, but in general

a as in father

e as in bet (or as in bait without the closing y sound)

i as in machine

o as in go

u as oo in moon


ai as eye

au as ou in house

ei as ey in obey

oi as in noise

Note that ei exists only to force the distinction with e, as in leta (letter) and leita (later, after). This distinction is uncommon.


The i of ai and oi is usually written y before another vowel. Technically, faya (fire) is pronounced FA-ya, but it's normal to say FAI-ya instead. Likewise au before a vowel is written aw: pawa (power).


The accent is on the first syllable.

Consonant mappings

Consonant mappings are mostly obvious; the exceptions are

Th in thin ([T]): t

Th in then ([D]): d

L or r before another consonant: omitted. (But l may be retained in advanced vocabulary.)

Final vocalic l sound (candle, ankle, etc.) -> al: kandal, ankal

Final vocalic r sound (canker, anchor, etc.) -> a: kanka, anka

Optional generic final vowel to help with otherwise final consonants: e.

In general, Inlis restricts consonant clusters. A form such as ?sprinklin should be considered extreme and worth avoiding, though it's technically allowable. Normally, the maximum should be only two consonants per cluster.


(The normal workaround for sCl- and sCr- initial clusters is to insert an a after C: sparinklin. I've not yet decided whether to write that or not; I'm tempted to consider it optional.)

Vowel mappings

Consonant mappings are fairly simple; the vowel mappings are

a TRAP (bad, cab, ham) (I've considered e here, but a works better)

a STRUT (cub, rub, hum)

a BATH (staff, clasp, dance)

a NURSE (hurt, term, work)

a START (far, sharp, farm)

a lettER (beggar, martyr, visor)

a commA (China, sofa, about)


e DRESS (step, ebb, hem)

e(i) FACE (weight, rein, steak)


i KIT (ship, rip, dim)

i FLEECE (seed, key, seize)

i happY (silly, Tony, merry)


o LOT (stop, rob, swan)

o CLOTH (cough, long, gone)

o PALM (calm, bra, father)

o THOUGHT (taut, hawk, broad)

o GOAT (soap, soul, home)

o NORTH (war, storm, for)

o FORCE (floor, coarse, ore)


u CURE (poor, tour, fury)

u FOOT (full, look, could)

u GOOSE (who, group, few)

u intO (influence, situation, bivouac)


ai PRICE (ripe, tribe, aisle)

au MOUTH (pouch, noun, crowd)

oi CHOICE (boy, void, coin)

ia NEAR (beer, pier, fierce)

ea SQUARE (care, air, wear)


Note that "long u" ([ju]) becomes a mere oo sound ([u]) except initially: duti, nu, but yusin. This is because dialects differ on the non-initial pronunciation.


I'll try to justify these mappings next time.