Since finishing the entire webcomic two days ago, I started working on a conlang for the language Keidran use in the webcomic. The Twokinds wiki says that "[Keidran] language is described as being quite 'growly'." According to Wiktionary, the definition of the verb "growl" is (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/growl) "To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound.". This is great news for a linguist like me, since it offers rich opportunity to incorporate lots of phonetically guttural phonemes, and in essence make the whole language itself 'guttural'.
As the base for the current consonant and vowel sets, I've used four sources. The first is the two Keidran words that Flora attempts to teach Trace in one of the first chapters, namely ch'rall, for "grass", and marlch'ren, for "trees". The second is a map made by Tom from his DeviantArt that incorporates a lot of place names, especially for Keidran tribes/villages. (It's this one: http://twokinds.deviantart.com/art/Twok ... -296521380).
My third source is the Keidran demonym, or simply the word "Keidran" itself. Although it seems more than likely to be a human rendition, it still definitely has a Keidran etymology. The fourth source is the place that I am assuming the protagonists are trying to reach at this current point in the story: Lyn'knoll, or "Orchard Valley".
So, given all of that data, I was able to put together a consonant set:
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║ ║ Labial ║ Retroflex ║ Uvular ║ Epiglottal ║
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║ Nasal ║ m ║ ɳ ║ ║ ║
║ Unvoiced Plosive ║ p ║ ʈ ║ q ║ ║
║ Voiced Plosive ║ b ║ ɖ ║ ɢ ║ ║
║ Unvoiced Fricative ║ ║ ʂ ║ ║ ʜ ║
║ Voiced Fricative ║ ║ ʐ ║ ʁ ║ ʢ ║
║ Ejectives ║ pʼ ║ ʈʂʼ ║ qʼ ║ ║
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Laterals: ɬ, l
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║ ║ Front ║ Central ║ Back ║
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║ Close ║ i ║ ɨ ║ u ║
║ Mid ║ e~ɛ ║ ə ║ o~ɔ ║
║ Open ║ ║ a~ɑ ║ ║
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So, without further ado, let me go straight to some auditory examples:
grass = ch'rall → /ʈʂʼʁaɬ/: http://vocaroo.com/i/s00rSoH8m5Ts
trees = marlch'ren → /'maʁl.ʈʂʼʁɛɳ/: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1cXxk9h9cjI
So, everything seems ready to progress the language to morphology, and then eventually grammar and vocabulary. The only problem I am faced with at the moment is figuring out what in the world the apostrophe means in Keidran words. So far, I have been using it to indicate ejective consonants, but this doesn't work well with the place-name "Lyn'knoll", since nasals ("n") can't be ejective.
The only one who can answer this question with absolute certainty is Tom himself, and I doubt I have much of a chance to get a word out of him, but I would be more than glad to hear you guys' suggestions as to what the apostrophe could mean, because as a linguist, I am honestly clueless.
At some point someone on the IRC channel suggested that it was used like in English for contractions. If this is true, it must be an internal part of Keidran morphology, for it seems to happen in a lot of words. Even proper nouns contain the apostrophe.