Vethari

Vethari
Vethari
Pronunciation	[ⱱe̞'θä.ɾi]
Created by	–
Setting	Vetharin
Native to	All of Vetharin, and exceeding the border into India. It is less prevalent in the West and South.
Native speakers	63.5 million (2021)
Language family	Vethari North Vethari Classical Vethari Vethari

Vethari is the official language of Vetharin, a kingdom located north in the Vetharin Peninsula, that goes off the northeast coast of India into the Bay of Bengal. It’s the mother tongue from 63.5 million people, that is 96% of the country’s population of 66.1 million, although it is not spoken so much on the west and south regions. On the other hand, it is spoken at a certain level on the other side of the border with India, with around 2 million speakers there. During World War II, a massive immigration from Vethari occurred, scattering speaker all across the world, but specially on England, Brazil, United States and Spain.

Vethari has only 2 dialects, although there is a standard form, that is the one taught in the schools and also the one that it is studied in this article. Vethari uses the Vethari script, that evolved from the Brahmi script. It is an abugida, like its ancestor. A standard romanization was made in 1898 and it used on guides, grammar books and transcriptions. The romanization is used on this article for being easier to understand. On certain places of Vetharin, people write with the Latin alphabet. Vethari is an agglutinative Active-Stative morphosyntactically aligned language.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m /m/		n /n/	rn /ɳ/	ny /ɲ/
Plosive	p /p/		t /t/	rt /ʈ/	c /c/	k /k/	q /q/
Voiced Plosive	b /b/		d /d/	rd /ɖ/	rj /ɟ/	g /g/
Velarized	pp /pˠ/	tth /θˠ/	tt /tˠ/	rtt /ʈˠ/, rss /ʂˠ/		kk /kˠ/
Affricate			ty /ʧ/		dy /ʤ/
Fricative	f /f/	th /θ/	s /s/	rs /ʂ/	cy /ç/, sy /ʃ/	kh /x/, gy /ʝ/
Voiced Fricative	v /v/	dh /ð/	z /z/		j /ʒ/
Approximant	w /w/			ry /ɻ/	y /j/	jy /ɰ/
Lateral			l /l/	rl /ɭ/	ly /ʎ/
Flap/Tap			r /ɾ/, rr /ɺ/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i /i/	ì /ʏ/	u /u/, ù /ɯ/
Mid	e /e/	è /ə/	o /o/, ò /ɔ/
Low		a /a/	à /ɒ/

Phonotactics

The phonotactic system of this language is defined by a carefully controlled set of phonemes with rich distinctions, especially among nasal, retroflex, palatal, and velarized sounds. Syllables generally follow a (C)V(C) or (C)(C)V(C) structure, with CV and CVC being the most common. Syllables cannot begin with a vowel-only onset unless they are grammatical clitics or interjections. The language makes extensive use of consonant contrasts, and many phonemes—such as retroflexes (/ʈ/, /ɖ/, /ɳ/, /ɭ/), palatals (/ɲ/, /ʎ/, /ɟ/, /ç/, /ʃ/), and velarized consonants (/pˠ/, /tˠ/, /kˠ/, /ʈˠ/, /ʂˠ/)—have restricted environments within syllables.

Consonant clusters are permitted in onset position, but are subject to strict rules. Common onset clusters include stop + glide (e.g., /pj/, /kj/, /gj/) and stop + lateral (e.g., /pl/, /kl/, /bl/), though not all combinations are allowed. Retroflex and velarized consonants almost never appear in clusters, and instead tend to occur in singleton positions. Clusters in coda position are extremely limited and generally dispreferred; most codas contain a single nasal (/n/, /ɲ/, /ɳ/) or a stop (/p/, /t/, /k/).

Vowels appear as syllable nuclei and never as codas. Diphthongs are not phonemic in this language; sequences like /ai/, /ei/, or /au/ are analyzed as separate syllables, often broken by a glide or a consonantal transition. The vowel system distinguishes between front (/i/, /e/), central (/ə/, /a/), and back vowels (/u/, /o/, /ɔ/, /ɒ/, /ʏ/, /ɯ/), each with clear distributional tendencies. Rounded front vowels like /ʏ/ occur primarily in closed syllables or as part of morphological alternations. The high back unrounded vowel /ɯ/ is restricted to unstressed syllables or function words.

Velarized consonants such as /pˠ/, /tˠ/, /kˠ/, /ʈˠ/, and /ʂˠ/ never occur next to front vowels like /i/ or /e/. They prefer low and back vowels, such as /ɒ/, /ɔ/, or /ɯ/, reflecting articulatory harmony. Their distribution is also limited by stress and syllable weight; for instance, velarized consonants often appear in stressed root syllables or as markers of emphasis. Retroflex segments—particularly /ʈ/, /ɖ/, /ɳ/, and /ɭ/—tend to be root-internal and are rarely found in affixes, which are more likely to contain plain coronal or palatal consonants.

Affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ only occur syllable-initially, never in codas or clusters. They are often used in expressive or ideophonic vocabulary. Fricatives are more flexible: /f/, /s/, /ʂ/, /θ/, and /x/ can occur in both onset and coda positions, while their voiced counterparts /v/, /z/, /ð/, and /ʒ/ are mostly restricted to onsets. Palatal fricatives /ç/ and /ʃ/—written as cy and sy—appear only before front vowels and cannot occur after back vowels. The voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ (gy) and the approximants /ɻ/, /j/, and /ɰ/ appear frequently in medial position, helping to transition between vowels.

Nasals play a central role in phonotactics. The contrast between /n/, /ɲ/, and /ɳ/ is fully phonemic and occurs in all positions. The retroflex nasal /ɳ/ only appears in environments where other retroflex consonants are also present, often due to regressive assimilation. The palatal nasal /ɲ/ commonly appears before front vowels, and is usually represented as ny. Approximants such as /w/, /j/, and /ɰ/ cannot appear in syllable-final position, and /ɻ/ is limited to stressed onsets. The flap or tap is not part of this phonemic system at all.

Lateral consonants /l/, /ʎ/, and /ɭ/ have strict distribution. The plain /l/ is the most common and occurs freely in onsets and codas. The palatal lateral /ʎ/ (ly) only occurs before /i/ or /e/, and never after back vowels. The retroflex lateral /ɭ/ (rl) occurs almost exclusively in medial position, often within roots or compounds, and avoids front vowels entirely. These laterals never appear geminated or in complex clusters. Morphophonemic processes involving these sounds tend to preserve their quality rather than undergo assimilation.

Stress interacts with phonotactics by allowing heavier or more marked consonants in stressed syllables. For example, velarized and retroflex consonants are favored in stressed roots, while palatals and glides dominate in unstressed affixes. Final syllables are stressed when closed by a consonant or contain a lower vowel like /ɒ/ or /ɔ/, while otherwise, penultimate stress is the norm. Vowel reduction does not occur dramatically, but centralization of high vowels to /ə/ is attested in fast speech, particularly in grammatical endings. Words cannot end in consonants, and also, there aren’t geminated consonants.

See Also

• Proto-Vethari
• Naythiri
• Oralathi

Sources

• Nowohirasu, 1962, Paris Roosevelt
• Grammatica Uetari, 1762, Ernest Hilbert McCartney
• Lùnyefarusu Tapiara, pgs 16-179 1870, Nefaru Odienatyana
• Retroflexes: Way Back, 2008, High Pine Books
• The Rttirrian Language, 1895, Obediah Taylor