Quarch: A Short Introduction to the Phonology and Transliteration

Although Quarch is not the Krruqr language spoken by the largest number of native speakers among the population of Krruqr, it is widely spoken as a second language throughout most of the planet. It is used by five major political entities. It is also the most spoken language outside of the Krruqr atmosphere, being spoken by a large majority on each of the six inhabited moons.

The native speakers number around 120 million, and the total number of speakers is around a billion.

Two writing systems are in use - a logographic system and a more phonemic system. The phonemic system uses symbols encoding a variety of modulations.

The Quarch phonology mainly consists of modulations; there is a pulse-like string of really quick 'stops'. The timbre of the stop mainly conveys information along the lines of what intonation conveys in English.

These are the modulations of tone for the pulse:

• / drastic rise during one or two stops, after which a slight fall or steady high pitch is held for about 3-5 stops
• ^ slight rise for 3 stops, followed by a short while (1-3 stops) of steady risen pitch
• = stable pitch, about 7-12 stops 
• : stable pitch, about 3-5 stops
• \ drastic fall one or two stops, followed by (3-5 stops),
• ̌ slight fall, followed by 1-3 of steady fallen pitch
• + return to 'home pitch' (an area otherwise avoided in modulations roughly in the centre of the pitch space), followed by 3-5 stops there
• * quick skips - 7-12 wide, almost random jumps around pitch-space
• % - slow rise over about 7 stops
• & slow fall over about 7 stops
• ? 4-5 stops rise, followed by 4-5 stops fall, ending slightly lower than starting

In addition, there are rhythmic figures. 

• P = start pulse
• L = prolong a pulse at the end of the previous pitch contour
• E = early onset of a pulse
• s = silence for a basic pulse-unit
• W = prolonged followed by early onset (so basically a swing eight kind of thing)
• M = backwards swing eight
• S = silence
• 2 = break silence with two regular-spaced beats
• ½ = break silence with two tightly-spaced beats
• 3 = break silence with three regular spaced beats
• 4, 8, 10 = break silence with [4...7], [7...10], [9+]  beats
• Numbers are usually followed by a . to indicate that the silence is resumed after the number. 

Finally, we have the tempo markings:

• @ increase tempo immediately by about one eighth (so 112% or so of the previous tempo)
• (( increase tempo over about 10 beats in a 'slide-like' fashion by about 1/5. Generally followed fairly soon by )), which reduces tempo by about 1/7 or by 
• # which reduces the tempo to about 95%
• < which reduces the tempo over about 15 beats, overshoots the end-point (thus reaches a slightly 'slowish' tempo, then slightly increases it to reach a 'natural' tempo. As you can notice, many of the other increases are greater than the reductions. Many common particles contain this tempo change, which basically serves to reset the tempo to something manageable. This is the only change that is more defined by the absolute tempo outcome than by a relative change.

In addition to these, Quarch has an 'upper melody'; the pulse and the melody do not need to occur simultaneously - there are even literary works that avoid using one or the other entirely - but many words and grammatical constructions use both. The tempo and beat need not be perfectly matched.

• ~ alternately move up and down until next symbol
• | stop
• ¤ jittery movement downwards
• ! jittery movement upwards
• ’ quick movement upwards
• § random movement over the pitch-space
• - steady pitch
• } approach pitch-space centre quickly

Finally we have the ¯ which marks rhythmic unit of no change

Thus, an utterance in quarch may come out 

+P=¯@&§S! |))P*¯

Research into the phonotactics of Quarch is still in its infancy.