Dialects
Kardii three main dialects, Southern, Northern and Central. Central or ‘pure’ Kardii is the official dialect and is spoken in West Nin. Northern Kardii is spoken in Nu. Southern Kardii is spoken in East Nin, which is the setting for the story To Steal the Moons. For that reason, Southern Kardii is the dialect I am most familiar with. The information given on the Kardii Phonology is the pronunciation of Southern Kardii. Here, I’ll try and highlight the differences.
Features Specific to Southern Kardii
Two sounds that are pronounced differently are ‘rr’ (a trill [r] in standard Kardii and a flap [ɾ] in southern) and ‘ee’ (mid-high [e] in standard Kardii and high [i] in southern). The pronunciation of ‘eeii’ (found in the word ‘theeii’ (sea) and its derivatives), in standard Kardii, is Kardii ‘ee’ + ‘ii’ [e.i]. Southern Kardii pronounces it the same as ‘ii’ [i].
Also, in southern Kardii, final stops tend to be unaspirated. This feature is due to the influence of Tasa and is most prevailent among those of Tali descent.
t’s- at the beginning of a word often comes from the word t’selin (bone). In standard Kardii, the ‘t’ is treated in the same way as ‘k’ and’p’ before an apostrophe (see above), becoming [tʰə̥.s]. In the southern dialect, the combination is pronounced ‘ts’ [ts]. ‘ts’ is also found in a few Tali names and Tasa loan words, eg. ‘neeraka tsen’ (the family name of the East Nin royal family). In standard Kardii, it has a tendency to be pronounced [tʰə̥.s].
Central Kardii
(coming)
Northern Kardii
(coming)