Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory is very similar to English, with no definite non-English consonants present:

p b t d k g
f v s z ʃ h
tʃ dʒ (ts)
m n
j l r w

Of these, only the affricates are less than certain. /dʒ/ is almost definitely a distinct phoneme rather than a consonant cluster, given the total absence of /ʒ/ in the corpus. Though both /t/ and /ʃ/ both appear as distinct phonemes, it is likely that /tʃ/ is a separate phoneme as well, as it is found word-initially, an environment where a stop cannot otherwise be followed by a fricative (see below). Though it's possible /ts/ could be a distinct phoneme, it's equally possible that it is a simple consonant cluster. The rhotic /r/ seems to be in free variation between [ɾ] and [ɻ]; it is transcribed /r/ for convenience. Finally, there is no instance of a clear /ŋ/ phoneme in the corpus; the only instance of /n/ followed by a velar is in the name "Sraiunkovsen"¹⁷, and it's difficult to hear whether the speaker is articulating [n] or [ŋ].

Vowels

The vowels present in the corpus are /a æ ɛ e ə ɚ ɪ i ɔ o ʌ ʊ u/. Of these, /ʌ/ is possibly an allophone of /a/, as it only appears in a word (/wʌts/^38,43) that seems to alternate with /wat/²⁷ (but see also /wʊt/⁴⁶). It is likely that most instances of [ɚ] are analyzable as the realization of a sequence /ər/, but the former appears in stressed syllables as well (flɚ⁹), which /ə/ never does. Vowels seem to be able to be reduced to /ə/ in unstressed syllables, though this process does not seem as extensive as in English.

The diphthongs present in the corpus are /ai ei oi ou/. Some words transcribed with a vowel followed by /j/ may be interpreted as pure diphthongs as well. In the sole appearance of the sequence /au/ in the corpus (/da.u/¹⁴), the vowels are clearly distinguished as two separate syllables.

Stress

Determining the overall stress pattern of the language is necessarily hampered by the fact that word boundaries are sometimes unclear: when the announcer introduces the host,⁴ does he do so with a single word /iˈvala/ carrying penultimate stress, or with an unstressed word /i/ followed by the word /ˈvala/ carrying initial stress? It is transcribed here as the latter, but it could just as easily be the former. Nevertheless, the majority of multisyllabic words seem to have initial stress, with the exceptions mostly found in names (Darill^18,19..., Toronto¹⁸) and obvious borrowings (champion,¹⁶ challenger¹⁷) — though see /trəˈdʒuki/,³² /ʊnˈdʒɪtsalou/.⁶

Phonotactics

The languages has a wide range of syllable types: V, VC, CV, CVC, and so on, up to an apparent maximal syllable type of CCVCCC (though the longest syllable in the corpus is CVCCC). There does not seem to be any restriction on what individual consonants may begin a syllable; based on related languages, it is likely that a syllable cannot end in /h/ or begin with /ŋ/ (if such a phoneme exists), and whether a syllable can end in /w/ or /j/ depends on how one analyzes diphthongs (see above). Outside of personal or place names, attested consonant clusters are /bl fl fr kl kr kw pl pr sp tr vr/, and attested coda clusters are /kt nd rz st ts ʃt rks/. Including names adds /gr sm sr ʃv/ to the onsets and /ns nt/ to the codas; these may or may not reflect the actual phonotactics of the language, as the bearers of these names come from three different countries, all with different languages from both each other and the language of the broadcast. Still, it seems likely that most of these clusters are legal in the language itself. Though a larger corpus is needed to confirm the language's phonotactics, the following speculative list of legal onsets and codas seems reasonable based on the data and related languages (attested examples are bold; examples attested only in names are italic):

• Onsets:
  • any consonant
  • /t,d/ + /r/ — tr
  • /p,b,k,g,f,v,s,z/ + /r,l/ — pr, pl, bl, kr, kl, fr, fl, vr; gr, sr
  • /s/ (and possibly /ʃ/) + /p,t,k,m,n/ — sp; sm, (ʃv)
  • /k,g/ + /w/ — kw
• Codas:
  • any consonant except /h/
  • any voiced consonant + /z/ — rz
  • any unvoiced consonant + /s/ — ts
  • nasal + homorganic stop — nd; nt
  • /l,r/ + any stop — (not attested)
  • /s,ʃ/ + /p,t,k/ — st, ʃt
  • /p,k/ + /t/ — kt
  • any of the above + /s,z/ (as voicing dictates) — rks; (ns)

Initial clusters of the type /s/ + /p,t,k/ + /r/ (as well as /spl/ and /skw/) would be consistent with other Germanic languages, but do not appear in the corpus.

The lax vowels /ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/ (and, if indeed it is a phoneme, /ʌ/) do not appear word-finally except in certain interjections such as /jɔ/ "yes" (10) and the apparent filler word /ɛ/ (30). There are no words in the corpus in which a diphthong precedes a consonant cluster.

Individual and dialect variation

The host pronounces the word "Feelyat" as /filijat/^6,13... while the other speakers consistently say /filjat/;^1,2,25,37 it is likely that many speakers pronounce a /j/ as /i/ or /ij/ following a consonant.

The elderly man pronounces a certain word /iʃt/³⁰ while the young boy pronounces the same word /ist/;³⁹ the man may speak a dialect that pronounces standard /s/ before other consonants as /ʃ/ (commonly seen in High German varieties). If this is the case, his [hɛʃta]³⁰ may represent an underlying /hɛsta/ in the standard language.

Orthography

Only three lines of text are present in the corpus, and only two match up to spoken utterances: ⟨feelyat⟩³ is the spelling of /fil(i)jat/, the name of the show, and ⟨Disastür zün Rhine⟩³⁴ appears right after the news anchor announces /dɪˈzastʊr zʊn rain/.³³ The spelling ⟨ee⟩ for /i/ and ⟨y⟩ for /j/ are unexpected given the provenance of the language, and likely reflect English influence; the same may also be surmised for the spelling ⟨Rhine⟩, though why this spelling would be taken from English rather than a continental language is a mystery. In the headline, we can see two spellings for /z/: <s> in ⟨Disastür⟩, and ⟨z⟩ in ⟨zün⟩. We can make a reasonable guess that ⟨s⟩ represents /z/ intervocalically, and presumably an /s/ in this position would be spelled ⟨ss⟩. The symbol ⟨ü⟩ consistently represents /ʊ/. Reliable analysis of ⟨NEWSIN BULLETUNIC⟩³¹ is not possible without information as to how it is pronounced, though given the apparent influence of English we may indulge ourselves in speculation and theorize a pronunciation /*ˈnuzɪn bəlɛˈtunɪk/.