Hey, everyone! So one thing I've noticed in the Foreigner series is that some of the words and names use a C (Cajeiri, Cenedi) and some use a K (kabiu, wi'itkiti). I've seen confirmation that Cenedi is with a hard C, so that all seems like it would be the same sound. The thing is, Ragi has its own script, of course, which means these words are all transliterations. The question then, is, why is our implied system of transliteration distinguishing between C and K? They could represent two different letters in the original Ragi script, but it seems implausible that an alphabet from another planet would just so happen to replicate our alphabet's quirk of having two letters for that one sound in particular, you know? Has anyone else thought of this? My theory, or at least personal headcanon, is that these are two different letters in Ragi because they actually represent two different sounds! Specifically, I think that Ragi distinguishes between an unvoiced velar stop (the traditional C or K sound, as in "cat", with the back of your tongue against the back of the roof of your mouth) and the unvoiced palatal stop (with the middle of your tongue against the middle of the roof of your mouth -- English uses a variant of this as the K sound before certain vowels, as in "key", although languages that distinguish the two sounds would usually pronounce it a little further forward). Since the English versions of these sounds are interchangeable, the result with an anglicized pronunciation would probably be functionally the same as treating C and K as the same sound like in English, but the difference that would be apparent to a Ragi-speaking listener justifies the difference in spelling and makes it make sense! I haven't decided whether C or K should be the palatal stop. The IPA uses /k/ for the typical English K sound, the velar stop, and /c/ for the palatal one, but in practice in English I think it tends to be the other way around, just because of how K comes before front vowels.

(I'm aware of how this kind of conflicts with the rule about H after a consonant creating a palatalIZED version, so words like Nokhada imply the existence of palatalized K, /kʲ/, and how real languages apparently don't distinguish between palatals and palatalized velars, but possibly the atevi vocal tract or sense of hearing or whatever might facilitate phonemic distinctions that are too hard for human children, and besides, I tend to read the secondary articulation on the palatalized consonants in Ragi as being slightly later, resulting in something almost like no-KYA-da, and that seems reasonably distinct to me?)

(Disclaimer that I'm not a linguist or anything, just someone who likes to look into this kind of phonetic thing for fun, and I think my explanations of things here are correct-ish enough to get across what I'm trying to say, but I'm sure it's not perfect or anything.)

Anyway, has anyone else thought about this? What have your thoughts been on this mystery?