Phonemes

Vowels

< a i u e o >
/ ɑ i u e o /

Consonants

< k ñ t n p m s r y v h ' >

There are four methods of articulation:
plosive / p t k Ɂ / < p t k ' >
nasal / m n ŋ / < m n ñ >
fricative / v s h / < v s h >
approximant / ɹ j / < r y >

There are six places of articulation, labial <p m>, labiodental <v>, alveolar <t n s r>, palatal <y>, velar <k ñ>, glottal <' h>.

Allophony

In many dialects, word-internal plosives tend to develop voicing. In Westland dialects, word-initial plosives are aspirated.

Stress

Stress falls always on the first syllable of the root. Compound words will have secondary stress on the first syllable of each subsequent root, eg. rireinutire /ˈɹi.ɹeˌi.nuˌti.ɹe/ 'Rireinu language'.

Phonological constraints

Syllable pattern: (C)V(')

Phonotactics must always be subordinated to phonostrategy. Else you have no chance to survive make your time.
Coda is only ever found in the final syllable of a word, which is the only place where a phonemic glottal stop may appear.
There are no diphthongs; each vowel is the nucleus of its own syllable. mau /ˈmɑ.u/ 'salt'
Where there are consecutive same vowels, as eg. tii 'milk', then unless the speaker is making a conscious effort to enunciate clearly, they are pronounced as a long vowel, /tiː/ rather than /ˈti.i/.
If there is a morpheme boundary between the vowels, eg. puhaaña /ˈpu.hɑˌɑ.ŋɑ/ 'dessert', the vowels remain separate.

Lexicon

Most word roots are two syllables. Personal pronouns, some conjunctions, and a few very common verbs are one syllable. There are some three and four syllable roots that are borrowings from other languages.

Löffelstein orthography

A mention must be made of an alternate orthography that is still used in some sources, although the orthography described above is the official one adopted by Rireinu authorities for transliteration into Human script. The Löffelstein orthography was developed by Free Trader Captain HA (Hildegard-Asuka) Löffelstein, one of the first Humans to come in contact with the Rireinukave.

Vowels

< a i u e o >
/ ɑ i u e o /
An apostrophe < ' > is used between consecutive vowels if one of them is < e > to prevent the appearance of diphthongs.

Consonants

< k g t n p m s r j w h q >

plosive / p t k Ɂ / < p t k q >
nasal / m n ŋ / < m n g >
fricative / v s h / < w s h >
approximant / ɹ j / < r j >

Native script

The native script is a syllabary: