What phonemes would a snouted animal (e.g. dog or cat) be able to pronounce?

Question

Assuming human-style vocal cords, what phonemes would a snouted animal be able to produce? I'm looking at developing a conlang (or several) for a setting, and it has several humanoid species with protruding muzzles. I can think of a few phonemes that can be ruled out immediately on the basis of lip immobility (/f/, /v/, and /w/ would be right out), but beyond that I'm kind of stumped.

(For what it's worth, I looked at this question, but it didn't really give me any leads. There's also a SciAm article that talks about canine communication, but it doesn't discuss this specific topic.)

Answer 1

Since it seems like you're looking for constraints to help construct your language, I thought one helpful approach would be to lay out exactly what sounds you have to work with. I've taken a chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) from Unilang.org and annotated it to indicate the sounds which are impossible without lips - crossed out in red.

There's another thing to consider, if we're talking about carnivores like cats and dogs - their teeth aren't like ours, so it's likely they'd have some degree of difficulty forming dental consonants, and maybe alveolar consonants (with the tongue just behind the teeth), in the way that we're used to forming/hearing them. As their teeth don't form as close a 'seal' as ours, with larger gaps between pointier teeth, it's likely there'd be a lisping or 'whistling' sort of inflection on these consonants - which would be perceived as an impediment if they were trying to speak one of our languages, but would be the normal way of producing such sounds in a language developed by/for pointy-toothed carnivores. The effect will be more pronounced for the dental (marked in orange) than for the alveolar.

All this is also dependant on the shape and size of their tongue; dogs especially have larger tongues proportionate to their mouth cavity compared to humans, so they'll probably have more issues with this than cats. In humans, an abnormally large tongue is known as macroglossia, and affects individuals with Down Syndrome - a dog's speech might share certain characteristics commonly associated with the speech of individuals with this condition.

Something I haven't quite been able to define in full is whether or not a cat or dog would be capable of producing sounds that aren't in the human IPA. One thing that immediately comes to mind is a cat's purr, and off the top of my head I do not actually know much about how this sound is produced. Whatever mechanism is involved is very likely something that a cat would incorporate into its language, given the rich variety of ways in which real cats can purr. If you wanted to work it into this chart (i.e. to make a chart of your own) I would probably put it as a trill or fricative beyond the glottal. A canine language would probably also incorporate growling, which (when imitated by a human) is probably somewhere between a voiced uvular and glottal trill.

Given that their hearing is more sensitive in higher frequencies, it might be easier for them to perceive breathy/whistling sounds that are very subtle to our ears - accordingly they might assign linguistic significance to these sounds (e.g. allowing some air to escape through the nostrils, or between the teeth). If this was the case, it might be a part of their language that humans would struggle to understand/learn. More sensitive hearing overall might also lead them to assign significance to sounds that are almost imperceptible to us, like the sound of the tongue adhering to/separating from the roof of the mouth, or the sound of the throat closing during swallowing.

Answer 2

YouTube Searching: Do a search on YouTube for "talking dogs" or "talking cats". With enough training, they can do pretty much every single phoneme out there, despite the immobile lips.

Allophones & Accents: That happens because of allophones, which are similar groups of sounds that form the phonemes used in a language. In fact, you see that even in humans, where people thousands of miles apart learn the same phonemes as different allophones, which makes them harder to understand, but are still possible. We usually call these "accents." There's more than one way to speak a particular phoneme. They often sound more like what a deaf person sounds like when trying to speak; they're clearly not using the allophone we're used to, but they can be understood to some degree.

Answer 3

I would strike a balance between understandability (for readers/listeners), effect, and realism.

It would be burdensome to read a long book with extreme accents for main characters or dominant communication forms.

An accent, or linguistic differences, can highlight differences of nationality, origin, and race, and give the readers mental cues.

Realism is helpful; it might make perceptive readers enjoy the book more. But too much realism can ruin it (IE if most words have to be deciphered, and the reader must slow down too much).

Realism: I like the other answer highlighting phoneme groups that would be difficult. I should note that difficult phonemes tend to not make it into a language, even if one can learn to say them. The USA/american "R" sound is unique and difficult to say. But most foreigners can learn to say it (though it tends to sound softer or different).

Final suggestions:

• Introduce the reader/con-attendees to the linguistic limitations once:
  • Using a character that is still learning English/common/whatever.
  • With a character who is tired/emotional and lets their accent slip
• Aim for lighter and heavier accent variants:
  • Main characters have a minimal accent; in writing, it's usually ignored or noted "blah blah, he said in a thick X accent".
  • Think of the target audience, and don't overburden them with parsing your words.
  • Use a thicker accent only at first, to set the tone.
    • IE, don't misspell words all through the book.
• Once you've set a tone, use context, phrases, etc to highlight the difference, rather than an annoying accent:
  • A single word, phrase, altered translation, or spacer word used throughout. "You humans always worry, ka?"
  • Consistently forget a word, phrase, or translation. "How fast is this, eh, space-engine? (hyperdrive)" / "Hand me the turn-twist-tool" he said, waving a bag of screws (screwdriver)
  • Misused slang, "This should be a bite of cake, right?"
  • Mixed metaphors, "It's not rocket surgery"
  • Unique slang throughout (read Ender's game) - best when the meaning is easy to infer.
  • Describe it (with humor): "The Kzindog muttered a stream of consanants. She had to replay the sounds in her mind to realize he had just said "You humans all smell the same."
  • Mention it: "You should have seen it" The guard said through his thick Kzindog accent.
  • Have them describe humans: "I laughed at his pink hairless face, eyes like potatoes" / "shut up, Round-Eyes."
  • Mention or make nonhuman sounds: "What did you think I was?" he growled, "A common dog?"

I realize I am answering partly from a written context, but remember that a con-lang will be written as well.