The Revised Kolagian Orthography standard (RKO-3)

Copyright © 1995 by Herman Miller. This document may be distributed freely as long as the copyright notice is kept intact.

The spelling of Kolagian languages was a chaotic mess until I came up with the Revised Kolagian Orthography (RKO). This system, with enhancements and minor revisions (RKO-2, RKO-3) has turned out to be extremely useful in representing the sounds of Kolagian languages, and quite readable as well. In addition to the standards given in this document, the rules allow each language to have its own Modified Kolagian Orthography (MKO) to resolve problems specific to that language. For example, few Kolagian languages use the phonetic sound represented as [c], a voiceless palatal stop, but many languages have a voiceless post-alveolar affricate, [tS]. Thus, most languages use {c} instead of the RKO {tsh} for this sound. (In this document, Kirshenbaum's phonetic symbols are in brackets, while the RKO and MKO symbols are in curly braces.)

The 21 consonants of the Latin alphabet are used with their IPA values, with the following exceptions: {h} is usually part of a digraph, {j} is a voiced palatal stop [J], {r} is an alveolar approximant [r], and {x} is reserved for each language's individual needs. Note also that {y} is a consonant, equivalent to IPA [j]. The IPA [h] is represented by the RKO digraph {'h}, though the apostrophe may be omitted between vowels or at the beginning of a word before a vowel.

The letter {h} has two major uses. After a consonant, it modifies the sound of the consonant (for example, stop+h represents the equivalent fricative). See the consonant chart below for the complete list of consonant+h sounds. Before a consonant, it makes the consonant voiceless, as in {hl} or {hn}. The first rule applies before the second rule, so that {thn} is {th}{n}, not {t}{hn}. Use a hyphen if you want the devoicing to apply first: {t-hn}.

The entire retroflex column is built using the retroflex diacritic {3}. For example, [n.] = {n3}, [t.] = {t3}, [s.] = {s3}.

The apostrophe is used as a diacritic to represent two types of sounds: ejective stops and taps/flaps. The reverse apostrophe represents implosives.

Clicks are represented as a combination of velar stop and some other stop, with an exclamation mark {!} in between them to signify that it is a click. A voiceless alveolar click, for example, is {k!t}. The {k} is optional. Nasal clicks are written with {n} by convention instead of {ng} (for example, {n!t}).

Remaining gaps in the IPA chart are filled with more-or-less arbitrary combinations of two or three letters: {gq}=[G], {ng}=[N], {nq}=[n"], {bb}=[b], {rr}=[r], {rrh}=[r"], {9}=[H], {`h}=[h], {þ}=[s], {ð}=[z], {wr}=[j], {wl}=[L]. Previous versions of RKO used {thl} and {dhl} instead of the Icelandic letters {þ} and {ð}, and this may still be seen in the current spelling of Olaetyan, or in ASCII representations of RKO spelling.

Consonant chart:

                  labio- dental,  post-  retro-                    pharyn-
        bilabial dental alveolar alveolar flex palatal velar uvular geal glottal
Plosive      p  b         t  d          t3 d3  c  j   k  g   q  gq         ?
Nasal           m     mh     n             n3     nh     ng     nq
Trill        pp bb           rr                                 rrh
Tap/flap                     r'           r'3                   rh'
Fricative    ph bh  f  v  th dh  sh zh  s3 z3  ch jh  kh gh  qh rh  hh 9  'h `h
                          s  z
Lateral fric.             þ  ð
Approximant           vh     r             r3     y       wr
Lateral appr.                l             l3     lh      wl
Ejective     p'           t'            t'3    c'     k'     q'
Implosive    p` b`        t` d`            d`3 c` j`  k` g`  q` gq`
Click        !p           !t            !t3    !c
Lat. click                !tl

kp, gb	labial-velar stops
hw	voiceless labial-velar fricative
w	voiced labial-velar approximant
ÿ	voiced labial-palatal approximant

ç x	officially undefined consonants
ç	alternative for [s*]
thl, dhl	alternative for [þ], [ð]
x	alternative for [hh], [z*], [k!t], [sj], etc.

x<	dental articulation: t< d< n< l<
	in general, a "farther forward" articulation (e.g., Eng. "keep"={k^h<i:p^h})
x>	"farther back" articulation (e.g., {p>} for a labiodental {p}).
x*	laminal articulation: s* z*
x'	ejective: t' ts' sh'
x`	implosive: b` g` t`
!x	click: !p !t !t3 n!t g!tl^h
xx	double letters may be redefined as needed for each language (MKO)
(xy)	double articulation, as in (kt), (fs) (not necessary for clicks such as {g!p}, {n!t<})

rrj	fricative trill
lr'	lateral flap
nr'	nasal flap
xh	alternative for (shkh)

-	separates consonants {n-g}.
h-	voiceless {hn}, {hm}, etc.
-^h	aspirated {t^h}, {k^h}, etc.
-0, -^w	labialized {t0}, {d0}, {n0}, etc.
-1, -^y	palatalized {t1}, {d1}, {n1}, etc.
-2	velarized or pharyngealized {t2}, {d2}, {n2}, etc.
-^g	velarized {t^g}, {d^g}, {n^g}, etc.
-^9	pharyngealized {t^9}, {d^9}, {n^9}, etc.
-3, -^r	retroflex {t3}, {d3}, {n3}, etc.
-j	alveopalatal {tj}, {dj}, {nj}, {sj}, {zj}, etc.

Vowel chart:


   Front                  Back                   Front                   Back
í           ì               ù        Close     ü            ý              ú
       î                                              ï                û
 é                          ò      Close-mid    ö                          ó
              è                                               õ
   ê           ë            â      Open-mid       oe                       ô
    æ            à
      ä                     á        Open            ã                     å
            Unrounded                                       Rounded

(Note: {oe} should be a ligature if this is available.)

a	general low vowel
e	general mid front vowel
i	general high front or central vowel
o	general mid back vowel
u	general high back vowel
ø	general mid central vowel (resembles schwa or barred o)
-ñ	nasalized [añ], [eñ], [oñ], etc.
-3	r-colored vowels [a3], [ë3], etc.
-<	farther forward
->	farther back
:	long [a:], [i:], etc.

Suprasegmentals:

'	primary stress
"	secondary stress
` - '	low, medium, and high tones
^ \ ~ / 	falling, rising tones

Note: In an MKO for a tone language, it is possible to use accent marks above the vowels to indicate tones. In this case, the ASCII RKO vowel digraphs may be used (ue for the Chinese ü, for example). The "e" of the digraph does not get an accent mark. (In the case of "ao", the accent mark falls on the "a".) This makes tone languages easier to read, but should be specifically indicated when used.

Languages

Mizarian Language Page Olaetyan
Kolagian Orthography is maintained by Herman Miller (hmiller@io.com)