View source for Cretean

'''Cretean''' (há Kuságas/há Kuságas grátzas) refers to the collectively to all dialect of Western Cretean branch of Graeco-Kunsakian spoken mainly in the Cretean Union, and in Greece (Note that some scholars refer to the dialect of Cretean in Greece as a separate language). Generally, the "Representative Pronunciation" is referred to as "'''Standard Modern Cretean'''". The former is a form of Cretean spoken by the government officials and is considered to be the pure form of Cretean. Aside from Modern Cretean, religious Creteans also use the liturgical Middle Cretean.

== Phonology and Orthography ==
Although the Latin orthography is not the only way to write Cretean, it is overwhelmingly the most popular one. Creteans in Greece usually write their language using the polytonal variant of the Greek alphabet.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Consonants
!
!Labial
!Dental
!Alveolar
!Dorsal
|-
|Nasal
|m
|n
|
|
|-
|
|hm /m̥/
|hn <n̥>
|
|
|-
|Stop
|p
|t
|tz /ts/
|k
|-
|
|b
|d
|dz
|g
|-
|Fricative
|f
|th /θ/
|s
|ch /χ/
|-
|
|v
|dh /ð/
|z
|h /ɦ/
|-
|Liquid
|
|
|r /ɾ/
|j
|-
|
|
|
|r /ɾ̥/
|
|-
|Trill
|
|
|ŕ /r/
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Vowels
!
!Front
!Central
!Back
|-
|High
|i
|y /ɨ/
|u /ʊ/
|-
|Mid
|æ /ɛ/
|e /ɜ/
|
|-
|Low
|
|a /ɐ/
|o /ɒ/
|}
Cretean uses two diacritics for vowels, v́ and v̂, the first one shows the rising tone /V̌/, and the latter falling /V̂/.

(note that this is a wip page and im not in the mood to finish it)