Rezhigun language

The Rezhigun language is a language spoken mainly in Rezhigun, where it is the official language.

Consonants

 * /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are postalveolar.
 * /f/ is labiodental. It occurs rarely in native words, and is also found in some loanwords.
 * Of the dorsal consonants, /k g x ɣ/ are velar and /ɴ/ is uvular.
 * /k g/ are often postvelar before unrounded back vowels.
 * /ʒ/ is written ⟨zh⟩ at the end of a syllable, and as ⟨j⟩ otherwise; however, the sequence /ʒ.ʒ/ is written ⟨jzh⟩.
 * /ɴ/ can only occur after nasal vowels, and is written with the trigraph ⟨nqh⟩.

Vowels

 * /a ă ã ã̆/ are central, and are only listed in the back column to save space.
 * Non-extra-short back vowels are unrounded in the final syllable of a word with multiple syllables, unless this syllable is stressed, so that the qualities /o u/ become [ɤ ɯ].
 * Nasal vowels are written without a ⟨q⟩ before /ɴ/, which is written ⟨nqh⟩; for example, the sequence /õɴ/ is written ⟨onqh⟩ instead of *⟨oqnqh⟩.
 * /i/ is always realised as extra-short [ĭ] before /j/. /j/ and [ĭj] are never contrastive.

Phonotactics
Rezhigun syllable structure is (C)V(C). Syllables can only end in fricatives, nasals, /l/, or /r/. Null onsets can only occur word-initially.

Dialects
Rezhigun is generally divided into three dialects.

Rugiyo dialect
The Rugiyo dialect is the predominant dialect of the Rugiyo region. There are also a few hundred speakers in Rezhigun City.

The dialect exhibits a few phonological and orthographic differences from the standard:
 * /r/ is elided syllable-finally, and the preceding vowel is lengthened to compensate; for example, standard akhmor [ˈmɤr] "sky" > Rugiyo dialect /ˈmɤː/. This can create a three-way length distinction: e.g. tutto [ˈtutɤ̆] "mountain pass", tuto [ˈtutɤ] "arm", Tutor [ˈtutɤː] "Mount Tutor".
 * /i/ is elided before /j/. If the elided vowel was the first in the word, then an extra-short schwa [ə̆] is inserted at the beginning of the word, which is sometimes represented by an apostrophe in writing. For example, standard Rugiyò [ˈrugĭjɤ̆] "Rugiyo", tiyu [tĭˈju] "wide", iyer [ĭˈjer] "liver" > Rugiyo dialect Rugyyo [ˈrugjɤ̆],  'tyu [ə̆ˈtju],  'yer [ə̆ˈjeː].
 * /k g/ are realised as [q ɢ] before unrounded back vowels.