Phonotactics

u is unrounded [ɯ] in most dialects and so are the diphthongs the vowel is involved in: ui = [ɯi], iu = [iɯ]. In dialects where u is rounded, the diphthong ui is typically pronounced as [yi] or [ʉi] instead of [ui].

The simple voiceless plosives have aspirated allophones in many dialects. The voiced plosives are no allophones of the simple plosives, probably because voice is a phonemic distinction between them and prenasalised stops.

Inside words, before and after uvular and pharyngeal consonants, [u] often becomes [o] and [i] often becomes [e]. In unrounded dialects, [ɯ] becomes [ɤ]. If the adjacent vowel group is a diphthong, the non-adjacent part of the diphthong does not change its normal position (unless it is itself adjacent to a uvular or pharyngeal consonant). Note that [a] does not move back after uvulars (as in Arabic or Kalaallisut), it is quite central already and keeps that position.

Most dialects pronounce the retroflex clicks as alveolar clicks.

Fricative click release is often articulated as either silent release, or aspirated release, or affricate release. A very light fricative release seems to be the most common allophone here. Moreover, you often hear a more uvular phone for the fricative release, also depending on the primary point of articulation of the click.

[l] after [t] and [q] is often devoiced (or often starts devoiced) and is then pronounced as a voiceless lateral fricative.

Qþyn|gài has some phonemes that are seldom directly visible in words, but instead appear by modifying their neighbourhood. Sometimes, they occur as vowel, sometimes as consonants, so they are considered as hybrid phonemes and depicted by superscripting them and listing both shades: the consonant and the vowel.

The following hybrids exist. The exact phonetic values are hard to give precisely due to the fact that the hybrids seldom occur explicitly. Therefore, please consider the graphemes as a hint only -- a variable for a more complex story.

Qþyn|gài has quite a few sandhi rules, usually triggered by 'hidden' phonemes that act like hybrids between consonant and vowels. The rules are complex and will currently not be discussed in detail here (though the previous section gives some hints), but in the interlinears in this document, the process will be visible (the hidden phonemes will be displayed in the morpheme break-up).

The other sandhi rules in Qþyn|gài affect the tones. The following tables lists the tone sandhi rules. The tone changes are neither written in the romanisation, nor in native script.

Tone sandhi rules only apply inside words.

A syllable has the structure CV, i.e., a consonant (group) followed by a vowel (group).

A word of Qþyn|gài has the structure (CV)⁺, i.e., a sequence of syllables.

The last syllable of each word is stressed. Stress in Qþyn|gài means that the vowel is slightly lengthened (by ca. 50%) and the tones are more emphasised: rising is more like 1-5, falling more like 5-1, and the level tone is at a particularly central level 3 (or 1 after a rising, or 5 after a falling tone, as defined by tone sandhi rules).