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Phonology
The 100 Roots
Grammar
Writing System
North Wind Fable
On this page:
· Consonants
· Vowels
· Syllables
· Stress
· Length rule
· Orthography
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The inventory is chosen to match Old Norse phonaesthetics.
Consonants
| |
Labial |
Dental/Alv. |
Palatal |
Velar |
Glottal |
| Stop | p b | t d | | k g | |
| Fricative | f (v) | þ ð s | | (g→ɣ) | h |
| Nasal | m | n | | (ng) | |
| Liquid | | l r | | | |
| Glide | | | j | | |
- þ = voiceless dental fricative /θ/ (English thin). Appears word-initially and as the epenthetic hiatus-breaker between two vowels — both between a vowel-final stem and a vowel-initial ending (auga+-ar → augaþar) and at a vowel+vowel root seam (sjó+orm → sjóþorm). Intervocalic þ is reserved for this — no root contains it between vowels.
- ð = voiced dental fricative /ð/ (English this). Medial/final only, never word-initial.
- f is /f/ initially, [v] between vowels.
- g is a stop only word-initially; elsewhere (between vowels, word-finally, before r) it is the fricative [ɣ]. This is why -gr (as in eldigr) is a fricative+liquid coda.
- hv, hl, hr, hn, hj are permitted onset clusters (very Old Norse: hvat, hlaupa, hringr).
Vowels
| Short | a e i o u y ö |
| Long (acute) | á é í ó ú ý and æ, ø/œ |
| Diphthongs | au /au/, ei /ei/ (mid onset, like Icelandic heil — not /ai/), ey /ey/ |
- y/ý = front rounded /y/ (Icelandic yfir).
- ö = /ø/; æ = /ai/ (the "eye" vowel), treated as a single vowel — distinct from ei /ei/.
Syllable structure
Maximal syllable: (C)(C)(C) V (V) (C)(C).
| Position | Allowed |
| Onset clusters | stop + r/l (br-, kl-); s + stop (sk-, st-, sp-); hv/hl/hr/hn/hj |
| Codas | single C; nasal/liquid + stop (-nd, -rk, -lt); stop + s/t; voiced fricative + r (-fr, -þr, -ðr, -gr) |
| Coronal appendix | a word-final -t or -s may attach outside the normal coda (eldt, sterkt, húss) — the mechanism behind the accusative and genitive endings |
Every root is one or two syllables, and every root is a legal standalone word.
Stress
Fixed initial stress on the first syllable of the whole word, exactly
like Old Norse and Modern Icelandic. In a compound the first root carries
primary stress and later roots take secondary stress, which is what keeps
long compounds sounding Norse rather than flat and agglutinative.
Quantity (compensatory length)
Rótmál observes complementary length: within a stressed
syllable, length falls on either the vowel or the following
consonant, never both.
| THE RULE |
| V̄ + Cː → V̆ + Cː — a long vowel shortens before a geminate |
| Genitive of hús /huːs/ | húss = [husː] — the úː shortens before long sː |
| Accusative of fót /foːt/ | fótt = [fotː] |
This is purely a pronunciation rule: the spelling (húss) and
morpheme segmentation (hús + -s) are unchanged, so the
case stays audible via the length swap rather than an added segment.
Orthography
The Old Norse / Icelandic Latin set:
a á b d ð e é f g h i í j k l m n o ó p r s t u ú v x y ý þ æ ö.
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