Phonology and Harsh Speech

Morthic is a survival language shaped by cold, stone, hunger, kinship, and warning calls across dangerous ground. Its sound system favors heavy consonants, hard clusters, long vowels, and sharp endings.

Morthic words often feel compact and physical, with roots like krag, druz, grol, skol, morz, and kraz. The language keeps its clusters instead of smoothing them away. The roughness is part of the sound.

Core Sound Shape

(C)(C)V(C)(C)

Morthic allows:

• single consonant beginnings

• heavy initial clusters

• consonant-final roots

• final clusters

• long vowels

Examples:

• krag = crag

• drom = thunder

• druz = frost

• grol = to maul

• skol = to freeze

• morz = night

• kraz = kin / family

Vowels

Morthic has short vowels, long vowels, and one major diphthong.

Short vowels:

• a = /a/

• e = /ɛ/

• o = /o/

• u = /u/

Long vowels:

• aa = /ɑː/

• oo = /oː/

• uu = /uː/

Diphthong:

• ae = /aɪ/

Consonants

Morthic uses hard, clear consonants. Its r is a full /r/, heavier than the tapped /ɾ/ used in Tavric or Velari.

Important consonant clusters include:

• kr

• gr

• dr

• sk

• zl / zr / zn style heavy combinations, when present through roots or compounds

Digraphs

Morthic uses two main consonant digraphs:

• th = /θ/

• sh = /ʃ/

Examples:

• gasheth = with / by means of a wound

• losh = death

IPA Chart

Consonants

Vowels