Elven Common

Geographical Distribution

Elven Common is the official language spoken by all the High Elven nations on the western coast: Kolthis, Thalassa, and Fennein. It was also formally the state language of Xethess, but was not universally spoken there like in the High Elven nations.

Phonology

Elven Common has the following consonants:

Non-Doubling	f h k
Doubling	m r n s ʃ t θ ɬ j
Doubled	ɳ ʦ t͡ʃ d ð t͡ɬ

It has the following vowel sounds:

a i u e o ai̯ ei̯ oi̯ ie̯ j

Morphology

• doubling/nondoubling: certain grammatical rules and vocabulary differences require a consonant to be doubled, changing its sound.
  • n->nn, m->mm, s->ss, t->tt, l->ll, r->rr, y->yy, th->tth, x->tx these are considered doubling consonants
  • f, h, t, and k are not doubling consonants, and when they grammatically need to be doubled instead add on a new phoneme.

Vocabulary

Here are a list of some elven words you may have seen defined elsewhere:

• Fallith [fattlith] - An elven two bladed sword
• Monekei - (Literally: "Short-lived creatures" eg: "fleeting") used as a derogatory term to refer to shorter lived sentient races
• Xethinne [shethidne] - "Be you secured by"("xeth-": to defend, -i: second person, -nne: imperfect dative)
• Innan [idnan] - "Warmth" ("in-": to heat, "-nan": state of being)
• Eluitthenan [elooithe+edna] - No accurate translation ("Elu": sleep [adjective], "ite"- time,  "consonant doubling + e": same vowel rule + third person, "-nan": state of being)

Phonetics

All phonemes are pronounced as written with the following exceptions:

• l is pronounced [ɬ] and is analogous to l in Icelandic. This can be approximated in English pronunciation by breathing voicelessly through an h sound into an l sound.
• r is a trill or rolled r like in spanish. 
• x is pronounced sh (actually slightly further back, whistling [ ʃ ]).
• Doubled letters are pronounced by making a t or d sound first. Doubled voiced (n and r) sounds are preceded by a d sound. Doubled voiceless (l and t) sounds are preceeded by a t sound.
  • the exceptions to this rule are y->yy which causes the next vowel to become j-fronted, t-tt which turns t into d, and th->tth which turns θ into ð.

Spoken by

• High Elf