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Hadokai Tubatonona · © Leslie R. Waggoner III · The Heater and The Hack — Chronicles of the Dance · 27 phoneme entries

1. Sound Inventory Summary A brief statement of what HT uses — 20 consonants (including the null consonant) and 7 vowels. Nothing more than a framing paragraph that introduces the tables.

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2. The Null Consonant Deserves its own section beyond the table entry. Key points:

• ungʌ is a structural placeholder, represented by a symbol similar to the equals sign (=), and is not a spoken sound
• It fulfills the CVC requirement when no consonant is needed
• No Latin/English equivalent — closest conceptual parallel is the silent position, closest written parallel is the ng placeholder concept in Hangeul
• It is never voiced

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3. Syllable Structure The canonical statement we finalized:

Each syllable contains exactly one vowel and two consonants whether voiced or silent. A syllable starts with a leading consonant and ends with a trailing consonant. No consecutive vowels within any single syllable, nor any consecutive consonants within any single syllable.

The four resulting surface forms:

• V — both consonants silent
• CV — trailing consonant silent
• VC — leading consonant silent
• CVC — both consonants voiced

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4. Stress

• Stress is a spoken convention only
• Not marked in written form
• The script renders syllabic blocks without stress indicators
• In spoken HT, stress may fall on any syllable to indicate semantic focus or emphasis
• Example: ʤoalʧa — stress on ʤo vs al vs ʧa shifts the semantic weight of the compound

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5. Phonotactics What is and isn’t permitted in sound combinations:

• One vowel per syllable — never more, never less
• No consonant clusters within a syllable
• No vowel clusters within a syllable
• Across syllable boundaries, consecutive vowels and consecutive consonants are both permitted because the boundary separates them
• Examples: a.ɛ, al.da, bak.na — all valid

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6. Writing System Note A brief statement clarifying the relationship between the phonology and the script:

• HT is written in syllabic blocks, not Latin characters
• The Latin/keyboard representation is a transcription convenience only
• Each syllabic block represents one complete CVC unit
• The script always provides positions for both consonant slots even when silent
• Pronunciation column in the lexicon uses IPA
• Syllables column uses keyboard transcription

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7. IPA vs Keyboard Transcription Convention Since this caused confusion and took work to resolve — worth documenting explicitly:

• Pronunciation column = IPA
• Syllables column = keyboard input shorthand
• The two are related but distinct
• Key differences: y in keyboard = j in IPA, w in keyboard = ʒ in IPA, c in keyboard = ʧ in IPA, S in keyboard = ʃ in IPA, U in keyboard = ʌ in IPA, I in keyboard = ɪ in IPA