Okaikiar has a rablatively small set of phonemes: only fifteen. What is more unusual is that the majority of these phonemes (eight) are vowels, with only seven consonants. In these pages Okaikiar is generally written using the Roman transcription system I describe below; for information on the native writing system, see the Orendiar pages.)
Each of the consonants is represented in the standard transcription system by the same letter that represents its usual sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet. However, note that all the symbols are lowercase in the IPA; I use English capitalization conventions when transcribing Okaikiar since it doesn't create any conflict within the symbols.
| l |
| d |
| m |
| r |
| k |
| n |
| z |
There is some phonetic variance that is noticeable to English speakers. For instance, voice is not significant, so that d may sometimes sound like an unaspirated t, and z may sound like an s This is particularly common on either side of the schwa sound '; see Vowels below. Thus the proper name D'zor sounds more like T'sor. However, the k never sounds like much like a g, probably because it is always strongly aspirated.
The eight vowels are represented by the five standard Roman vowel letters, plus y, ø, and the apostrophe. This means that the transcription doesn't always agree with IPA. Here are the vowels with three transcriptions: standard, Unicode IPA, and X-SAMPA. Note that the conlang mailing list uses a slightly modified version of X-SAMPA in which the sound represented by IPA æ is represented by & instead of {.
| Roman | IPA | X-SAMPA/conlang |
|---|---|---|
| u final |
ʊ u |
U u |
| y final |
ʏ y |
Y y |
| o before r |
o ɔ˞ |
o O` |
| ø before r |
ø œ˞ |
2 9` |
| e final |
Ɛ e |
E e |
| a before r final |
æ a˞ a |
{ / & a` a |
| ' | ǝ | @ |
| i final |
ɪ i |
I i |
Okaikiar syllables are [C]V[C][C], where the only permissible final clusters consist of a non-stop (l, m, n, r, z) followed by a stop (d or k). Single intervocalic consonants are in the same syllable as the following vowel. Every vowel is syllabic; there are no recognized diphthongs. Thus Okaikiar syllabifies into o-ka-i-ki-ar. However, in rapid speech a vowel plus an adjacent i may merge into a rising or falling diphthong phonetically, as o-kai-kiar.
In an Okaikiar word, the stress generally falls on the penultimate syllable. However, a schwa (') is not eligible to receive the stress, nor is an i unless it is the only vowel in the word; when the penult has one of these vowels, the stress moves - to an earlier syllable if there are any, otherwise to the final one. Thus the stress falls as indicated in the words Okáikiar and D'zór.