Practical Orthography

labial alveolar post alveolar retroflex palatal velar uvular glottal
stop t d ʧ ch ʧʸ chy

kʸ ky

 k q ɢ gg
glottalized stops t’ ʧ’ ch’ Ê” ‘
nasal n Å‹ nh
Fricative f v s z Ê‚ s’ x
affricate
approx. ɾ r

(tap)

r rr (trill)

 É» r’
lateral approx. ɬ lh l ɬʸ lhy

 

front central back
high i ɨ ï u
mid ai ai aÊŠ aw

ʌ ä

 ʊ ü

o
low æ ae a

 

 

Practical Orthography: The symbols we will be using in writing the language are in red, some of these are digraphs (two characters together represent one phoneme). Don’t mistake digraphs for consonant clusters.

If a sound has no red counterpart, we will type it as it is in the IPA (e.g. /f/). Some of the vowels require that you use “insert symbol’ to write them (or, if you are a Mac user, to hold down the unaccented version and select one with an umlaut). A word that is phonologically / r aÊŠ Å‹/ would be written in our practical orthography: rrawnh.

Vowel pronunciation reminders:

  • u ‘new’ –   i ‘feet’
  • a ‘father’ –   ï ‘meh’
  • ai ‘I’  –  o ‘nope’
  • ae ‘hat’   –  aw  ‘ouch’
  • ä ‘luck’  –  Ã¼ ‘book’