astarese phonology and orthography

consonants

the nineteen consonants of astarese are given below according to their representations in the international phonetic alphabet, followed by the conventional romanization in bold, as well as variants in italic. place and personal names can use irregular or archaic spellings.

		labial		dental		alveolar			palatal			velar
nasal		m	m	n	n
plosive	tenuis	p	p	t	t	t͡s	tz, c¹	ţ ², ts	t͡ʃ	cz	ç ², tsz, tş, tg	k	c~k³
plosive	voiced	b	b	d	d	z~d͡ʒ⁴	z, g¹	dz, gz				g	g~q³	gh
spirant	voiced	b	b	d	d	z~d͡ʒ⁴	z, g¹	dz, gz				g	g~q³	gh
spirant	tenuis	f	f			s	s		ʃ	sz	ş ²	x~h⁵	h	ch, gh
resonant		w	w	l	l	r	r		j	y

¹ these vary etymologically (and are roughly equal in commonality), though <c g> can only be /⁠t͡s z~d͡ʒ⁠/ before front vowels.
² <ţ ç ş>, with their cedillas derived from following <z>, are more common in handwriting than in printed and digital material, and vary in popularity regionally. they are officially interchangeable with <⁠tz cz sz⁠>.
³ <c g> are used before consonants, at the end of a word, and before back vowels, while <⁠k q⁠> are used before front vowels (and very rarely elsewhere).
⁴ in mostly free variation, and also including [d͡z ʒ], with the palatal phones somewhat more common before front vowels.
⁵ [x] is the traditional realization, but [h] is very common syllable-initially.

vowels

	front			central			back
high	iː	î, ŷ⁶	iy, uy⁶	ʉː	û	uu	uː	ô	oo
mid-high	ɪ	i, y⁶		ʏ	u
mid	eː	ê	ei, ey⁶	øː	oe		o	o
mid-low	ɛ	e		ɐ	a		ɔː	â	aa
low				aː	ae

⁶ these vary mostly etymologically, but <y ŷ> are significantly more common at the ends of words, often alternating with <i î> should a suffix be added.