Download The Talossan language has eight phonemic vowels

I. VOWELS AND VOCALICS
The Talossan language has eight vowel sounds, each represented by one of
eight letters, and a lot of vowel-combinations of two or three vowel sounds called
diphthongs or triphthongs. These – vowels and polyphthongs (or “vowelcombinations”) – are called vocalics, and every syllable contains exactly one
vocalic. (And yes, phonologists sometimes call the simple one-sound vocalics
monophthongs, which is not a kind of Brazilian beachwear.)
Each diphthong consists of an “on-glide” i or u plus a vowel, or else a vowel plus
an “off-glide” i or u. For instance, the ya in English yard is (on-glide) i + a; the wi
in English with is (on-glide) u + i; the ay in English day is e + (off-glide) i; and the
ow in English now is a (as in cat) + (off-glide) u. Each triphthong consists of an
on-glide + a vowel + an off-glide, like the vowel sounds in English yikes or wye or
wow. (Note that when i is an on-glide, before the vowel, Talossan sometimes
writes it as a j.)
This chart shows, for each vocalic, the written appearance both without and with
a stressmark, and the pronunciation.
Note that stressmarks are only written when they are necessary to specify
a word’s pronunciation; so a vocalic will often sound stressed, even though no
stressmark appears. The question of when stressmarks are necessary will be
discussed below.
unstressmarked stressmarked pronunciation
THE 8 VOWELS (MONOPHTHONGS)
Note that some of the vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) have two stressmarked forms.
These two forms – one using the acute accent ´ and one using the grave ` – are
entirely equivalent; the choice between them is one of personal taste or
handwriting. Many Talossan writers follow the “rule” that the grave accent is
used at the end of a word and the acute accent at the beginning or in the middle
(so they might write ánalog, avalità, zódiac, apricò), but that is simply a matter of
personal style. Apricó is no more, and no less, correct than apricò.
Each of the other three vowels (ä, ö, and ü) has only one stressmarked form.
Summing up, Talossan has:
1. one diacritical mark (called umlaut or diaresis or “two dots”) that
turns the vowel into an entirely different vowel,
2. one stressmark (written either with the grave or with the acute
accent) that marks stress, and
3. one sign (the circumflex) that represents the presence of BOTH
the vowel-changing umlaut AND the stressmark.
1. When stressed, like the a in English father
or Spanish hablar.
a
á or à
ä
â
2. When unstressed, especially at the end of a
word, a often degenerates to the schwa sound
of a as in about or sofa.
Like the a in English cat or fancy.
1. Adjacent to another vowel, or when
stressed at the end of a word, e is pronounced
like the French é as in étude, similar to the a in
English mate but without the off-glide i sound.
2. Otherwise e tends to be shorter, more like
the e in English bet or French près.
e
é or è
3. Unstressed, and especially before r, many
speakers will pronounce e almost as a schwa,
like the a in English amount or the o in English
word. So Talossan per can be pronounced to
rhyme either with English her or with hair, or
somewhere in-between.
4. Unstressed at the end of a word after a
consonant, e is silent (or very nearly so).
5. After c and before any vowel except e or i, e
is not pronounced, but merely serves to
change the pronunciation of the c from c as in
English cat to ch as in English chat (which
could therefore be written ceät in Talossan). In
this case, the e should not be considered part
of the following vocalic.
i
í or ì
1. Like ee in English see, or the i in Spanish or
Portuguese vida.
2. Unstressed i is often shortened to
something like the i in English bit.
3. Unstressed at the end of a word after a
consonant, i is silent (or very nearly so). It is
entirely silent in the ending -eschti.
4. After c and before any vowel except e or i, i
is not pronounced, but merely serves to
change the pronunciation of the c from c as in
English cat to ch as in English chat (which
could therefore be written ciät in Talossan). In
this case, the i should not be considered part of
the following vocalic.
o
ó or ò
1. Like o in Spanish poco; similar to the o in
English go, but a pure vowel, with no off-glide
u.
2. Unstressed, often pronounced more like the
o in Italian bocca, like an English “short o”.
Like French eu in feu or German ö in Möbel.
(English speakers can try saying e as in met
with rounded lips.)
ö
ô
Note that In two old words, stötanneu and
lögneu, the obsolete letter ø is still sometimes
used in place of ö – støtanneu and løgneu.
1. Normally like oo in English moon, or like u in
Spanish or Italian luna.
u
ú or ù
2. Unstressed in other positions, and especially
in the prefix un-, some speakers sometimes
pronounce u as in English cut or uneven.
3. In the ending -iun, the n is silent and the u is
nasalised, as in Portuguese -um.
4. The combination qu is pronounced like qu
in English queen.
ü
û
Like French u in nul or German ü in Führer.
(English speakers can try saying ee with
rounded lips.)
VOWEL-COMBINATIONS (POLYPHTHONGS)
Talossan has a great many diphthongs and triphthongs – vowel-combinations –,
in which the sounds of two or three vowels blend in a single vocalic (and
therefore a single syllable). The nine two-vowel combinations ae, ai, au, ei, eu,
oa, oi, öi, and üi are all single vocalics, as are many combinations of two or
three vowels beginning with i or u.
Note these rules:
1. An i between two vowels combines (as an on-glide) with the following vowel
and NOT (as an off-glide) with the preceding one. This usually makes very little
difference in the pronunciation – raiat (= striped) will sound the same whether
you think of it as rai-at or as ra-iat –, but it might well make a difference when
you come to analyze stress.
2. A u between two vowels does NOT combine (as an on-glide) with the
following vowel, and is free to combine (as an off-glide) with the preceding one (if
it’s a vowel that would combine with u).
ae
áe or àe
ai
ái or ài
au
áu or àu
Like ow in English cow.
ei
éi or èi
The diphthong that English speakers think of
as “long a”, as in great or day.
eú or eù
A very common diphthong in Talossan,
pronounced rather like i in English bit followed
by w in English wet. Eu is very rarely seen in
its stressmarked form.
Like i in English bite or y in my.
eu
Here, v represents the unstressmarked form of
any vocalic (except for vowel-combinations that
themselves begin with i or u) and V represents
the stressmarked form of v.
iv or jv
iV or jV
Unstressed before any such vocalic, or before
ou, i forms a vowel-combination and is
pronounced very much like the y in English
yes. (In which case i may be written with a j,
so zódiac and zódjac are exactly equivalent.)
So ia sounds like German ja, ie like Ya in
English Yale or ye in English yet (or
somewhere in-between), ii like the English
word ye, io like io in Spanish Dios, iö like ieu
in French Dieu, iu like English you, iau like
eow in English meow, and so on.
oa
oá
Like the wa in English water; this is the same
diphthong as ua.
oi
ói or òi
Like the oy in English boy or the oi in English
toil.
öi
ôi
Simply ö merged together with i. Rather rare.
Here, v represents the unstressmarked form of
any vocalic (except for vowel-combinations that
themselves begin with i or u) and V represents
the stressmarked form of v.
uv
uV
Unstressed before any such vocalic, u forms a
vowel-combination and is pronounced very
much like the English consonant w.
So ua sounds like the wa in English water, uai
like wi in English wide, ue like the wa in
English wade or the we in English wet (or
somewhere in-between), ui like the English
word we, uu like English woo, and so on.
üi
ûi
The sounds of ü and i, merged together.
Impossible in English, not uncommon in
Talossan.
ADJACENT VOWELS THAT ARE NOT VOWEL-COMBINATIONS
If two vowels are adjacent in a word, but do NOT combine into a vocalic, they
must be pronounced as clearly being in two separated syllables (like the ea in
English reality).
1. Any group of vowels that is NOT listed above as a vowel-combination (for
instance, ao or ee) is NOT a vocalic.
2. Even if it IS listed above, a pair of vowels is do NOT combine if
a) the vowels are separated by an apostrophe (as in a’e or i’a), or
b) one of the two vowels is stressmarked, but it’s NOT the one that forms
the stressmarked version of the diphthong (for instance, aí or éu), or
c) the first vowel is an e or i preceded by a c.
In particular, these common (non-combining) sequences of vowels should be
noted:
ou
éu or èu
This very common pair of vowels is just what it
looks like – a stressed e followed by a u in a
separate syllable, as in Latin Deus, or
(approximately) as in English grey ooze.
ía or ìa
Stressed i followed by unstressed a in a
separate syllable, as in Spanish María, or Latin
fiat.
óu or òu
Not a diphthong, not even really a pair of
vowels, but just another way to write the sound
of oo in English moon.
II. STRESS
Stress, a common feature of most European languages, refers to the way some
syllables are pronounced slightly louder or longer than others. For instance,
English district and surgeon are stressed on the paenultimate (next-to-last)
syllable – district, surgeon –, whereas disturb and surround are stressed on the
final (ultimate, last) syllable – disturb, surround. (The syllable before the
paenultimate is called, by phonologists, the antepaenultimate – go ahead, say it,
it’s fun –; and by normal people the “third from the end”. Habitat and elephant
have antepaenultimate stress.) Stressing a word differently can often change its
meaning – you throw a discus, but to discuss something means to talk it over;
you refer someone for counselling, you might smoke a reefer; you reject
something, after which that something is a reject.
Note that sometimes we speak of the syllable as being stressed, and sometimes
of the syllable’s vocalic as being stressed. These mean exactly the same thing.
One-syllable words you can consider to be stressed on their one syllable. (Duh.
Where else?) Talossan spells some one-syllable words with a stressmark in
order to distinguish them from other similar-looking words that are spelled without
the stressmark – for instance, a = she but á = to; la = the, but lá = there –, but
this mark on one-syllable words in no way affects their pronunciation.
When words are hyphenated together, the different parts of the word are each
pronounced and stressed as if they stood alone; so parta-t-o, for instance, is
stressed on par and again on o.
The following rules will make it possible for the reader to determine from the
written form of a Talossan word, always and unambiguously, how it should be
stressed.
THE STRESS RULE
Every word of two or more syllables (after you remove certain never-stressed
word endings) is stressed on one of its last three syllables. Given the written
word, you can tell which of the last three syllables is stressed by applying this
Rule of Stress:
If any syllable has a stressmark, that syllable is the one that is
stressed. Otherwise, the word is stressed on the vocalic before the
last consonant in the word (ignoring consonants in the endings -as,
-en, -ent, -er(s), -eux, -ic, -ica(s), -ici, -ilor, -laiset, -mint,
-p(h)äts, and -sqab, if the word ends with one of those); but if there
is no such vocalic, the word is stressed on its first vocalic.
1. Note that if a word ends with more than one of the “ignore endings”, you only
ignore the consonants in the ending the word actually ends with; so lucenteux =
brilliant (plural) is stressed on ent, even though -ent and -eux are both on the list
of ignore endings.
2. For purposes of the Stress Rule, an unstressmarked i or u followed by
another vowel is considered to be a consonant.
3. The optional last-syllable stress on a third-person singular future verb is never
marked. For instance, we write lirarha (= he will read), even though a speaker
may stress the final syllable. (The last-syllable stress on será (= he will be) is
NOT optional, and IS marked.)
4. Similarly, the words acest (= this) and vidarh (= to see) are not stressmarked,
even though they can optionally be stressed on the first syllable.
SECONDARY STRESS IN LONG WORDS
We need an extension of the Stress Rule to tell us how to stress the early parts
of very long words. Consider a word like baxhulatorxheu (= sedan). We know
from the Stress Rule that it’s stressed on the syllable tor – baxhulaTORxheu. So
far, so good. But we don’t know if the secondary stress – and there has to be
one, since there will almost never be three unstressed syllables in a row – is on
the first syllable or the second. That is, we don’t know whether to say
BAXHulaTORxheu or baXHUlaTORxheu. Usually the reader could guess pretty
well, but we don’t want to have to guess; we want to KNOW. So, here’s the rule
for longer words:
Let the syllable just before a stressed syllable be called 1B, the syllable
before that be called 2B, and the syllable before that be called 3B (for oneback, two-back, and three-back). If the stressed syllable contains a vowelcombination beginning with i or u, then there IS NO 1B, and the two
syllables just before the stressed syllable are considered 2B and 3B. If
any of these syllables is stressmarked, then that syllable is stressed.
Otherwise if 3B is “long”, then 3B is stressed; otherwise 2B is
stressed.
A “long” syllable is defined as one in which the vocalic is a vowelcombination or is followed by a group of two or more consonant sounds.
(Consonant SOUNDS, not WRITTEN consonants. “A group of two or
more consonant sounds” includes clusters like br and lt and nsch, and
any letter or combination of letters that makes the sound of x as in English
box, ch as in English chop, or j as in English judge. It also includes the
palatal consonants represented by lh and gnh. It does NOT include the
single consonant sounds which are written as multicharacter groups in
Talossan – th, tg, tx, c’h, sch, and so on – or “double” letters like ss and
ll that represent a single sound.)
So we write baxhulatorxheu. 3B (from tor) is baxh, which has the sound of
English j following the vowel. Because 3B (baxh) is a long syllable, 3B is
stressed, and we say BAXHulaTORxheu. If the word were pronounced
baXHUlaTORxheu, it would have been written with the u stressmarked –
baxhúlatorxheu.
Again, consider auþorisaziun (= authorization). The Stress Rule tell us to stress
the last syllable ziun. That syllable contains a vowel-combination beginning with
i, so there will be no B1. Be, then, is i, and B2 is sa. B3 is short, so B2 is
stressed. Now applying the long-word rule again (starting this time from the
stressed syllable sa), we get au as B3, þor as B2, and i as B1. B3 contains a
diphthong, so it’s long, and therefore is stressed; and the entire word works out
to have three stressed syllables – AU-þor-i-SA-ZIUN.
Note that when two stressed syllables are adjacent in a word, the first one is
generally pronounced with slightly less stress than the second. So in
auþorisaziun, the stress on sa will be pronounced rather lightly, with a heavier
stress on ziun.
III. EXCEPTIONS
The word-ending -ind(s) (which marks present participles) is pronounced -ant(s),
even if the ending does not mark, or no longer marks, a present participle. So
viind (= meat) is pronounced as if it were written viant or vjant. (But note the two
exceptions to this exception in the list below, scriind and vienind.)
Additionally, the following words are not pronounced as their spelling would lead
you to believe. (This list will just have to be memorized.)
acestilor (= those), pronounced as if written acéstscheler
Cézembre, pronounced as if written seizambre
da c’hórsica (= of course), pronounced as if written dac’horsc
doamna (= lady or Mrs.), pronounced as if written duana
dtu (= thou, form used after consonant-preposition), pronounced as if written du
fiir, fiis (= loyal), pronounced as if written fir, fis
hi (= there, as in “there is”), pronounced as if written i
irh (= to go), pronounced as if written íarh
lhor (= them), pronounced as if written ðor
lo (= it), pronounced as if written lu
Miadhoamna (= Madonna), pronounced as if written Maduana
maritiimi, pronounced as if written maritimi
morgun (= morning), pronounced as if written moren
nhoi (= us; also an obsolete word for then), pronounced as if written gnhoi
nhoua (obsolete word for new), pronounced as if written gnhoua
o (= he), pronounced as if written u
os (= they), pronounced as if written usch
scriind (= writing), pronounced as if written scríent
scurz- (root word = short), pronounced as if written scurtzsieu (= his, her), pronounced as if written schu
síeu, síeux (= his, hers), pronounced as if written síu, síusch
so (impersonal objective pronoun), pronounced as if written scho
-sqab (suffix meaning -ship or -ness), pronounced as if written -scab
tirh (= to have), pronounced as if written tíarh
tsía (= hers, feminine), pronounced as if written tía
Tzaranhoua (= Newfoundland), pronounced as if written Tzaragnoua
vienind (= going, coming), pronounced as if written vienent
Words spelled with g but pronounced as if the g were xh:
ageu, ageux
legeu, legeux
regeu, regeux
regipäts, regipätsilor
vice-regeu, vice-regeux
IV. HOW TO GET THERE FROM HERE
So far, I have simply presented Talossan’s New Spelling, the way it will be after
we adopt this proposal. Here are the specific steps necessary to get there from
here; i.e. to move from Old Spelling to New Spelling.
1. Replace all instances of â and å with a.
2. Replace all instances of äi with ai.
3. Respell är as aer, and respell all other words ending in -är to end in -aer.
Respell all words that end in -ärC (where C represents any consonant) to end in
-arC.
4. Remove the silent -ë from the infinitives of all irregular verbs, and from the
noun pëvarë (= power), which will end up being pevarh. Replace all remaining
instances of ë with e.
5. Replace all instances of the ending -oïd with -oid. Respell aerofoïl as
aerofoil. Then replace all remaining instances of ï with í.
6. Replace all instances of ii with i, except in the words fiir, fiis, and maritiimi.
7. Respell aciînt (= accent) as acieint, ciîntéir (= belt) as cieinteir, ciîntoûr (=
waist) as cieintour, reciînt (= recent) as recént, and zeciînt (= decent) as zecént.
Replace all other instances of î with i (in the process, replacing cî with chi),
except in the following groups of words:
7a. In the following words, and their compounds and derivatives, replace î
with a:
A FEW (NOT MANY) aliquînds
ART îrt
BEFORE avînt
BEHIND davînt
BLOOD sîng (sîngéir, sîngéiçâ)
BOARD (WOOD) plîc
CONSONANT consonînt
CONSTANT constînt
DRESS FOR BATTLE cîmpestrarh
HOLY sînt (sîntâ)
MAINTAIN mîmtenençar
QUARTER (ONE-FOURTH), SHIFT (WORKING HOURS) quîrt
QUINTAL quîntál
SONG cînt (cîntadâ, cîntoûr, cîntéir)
TIRED, EXHAUSTED cînsat
VACANT vacînt
WHITE cîndéu
7b. In the following words, and their compounds and derivatives, replace î
with e:
ALERT alîrt
ANCIENT anciînt
BUTTRESS sostînc
EMBLEM embîm
EXPERT, SPECIALIST expîrt (expîrtísmeu)
MEMBER mîmbreu
TIME tîmp (cüntîmpál, tîmpurál, tîmpurár)
VERB vîrb (advîrb)
WARN avîrtarh
7c. In the following words, and their compounds and derivatives, replace î
with ei:
APPEND apîndárh (apîndátx, apîndix)
HANG pîndarh (pîndülüm, pîndecülár)
NINETEEN úndavînt
OVERWORKED sürprîndescù
PAINT pîntâ (pîntarh, pîntüscù)
PAINTBRUSH pînçél
PENALTY pînaltà
PINCH (OF SALT, ETC.) prînsâ
REMIND remîndarh
SELL vîndarh (á vhînd)
SHILLING vîntimë
SPHINCTER sfîntéir
TAKE prîndarh (reprîndarh)
TWENTIETH vîntlaiset
7d. In the following words, and their compounds and derivatives, replace î
with u:
ABSORB ausîrvarh
ACCORD (AGREEMENT) acîrd
ACQUAINT aquîntarh
ADSORB adsîrparh
BRIDGE (OVER WATER) pînt
COMFORT cunfîrt
FRONT frînt
MELT mîltarh
OPPORTUNITY îportunità
VORTEX vîrteschâ
7e. In the following words, and their compounds and derivatives, replace î
with ü:
ABSURD ausîrd
ADULT adîlt
APPOINT apîntarh
BOILED bîltescù
DEPTH profîndità (profînçarh)
POINT (DOT) pînt (including compounds spelled with “phînt”,
pîntuál, pînteçarh, pînteçaziun, pînteçaziun)
PUNCTURE pîntürarh
8. Replace the six instances of scj with sq, and all remaining instances of cj with
chi.
9. Replace both instances of ø with ö, but note in the Treisour that both may be
spelled with ø.
10. Replace all instances of oâ with óa. (Obviously, this has to be done before
replacing â with a.)
11. Replace all instances of oû with ou.
12. Replace all instances of û with u.
13. Replace all instances of w with u, except any that we’ve voted to keep.
14. Replace all instances of y with i.
15. Go through the entire lexicon, re-stressmarking according to the Rule of
Stress to eliminate unnecessary stressmarks and introduce newly-necessary
ones, also making sure that every apparent vowel-combination really is one, and
(if it isn’t) separating the vowels by use of a stressmark where that’s appropriate
or an apostrophe where it isn’t.
Note that in some words, either a stressmark or an apostrophe would do the job.
For instance, heroïneu (= heroine) could be spelled either hero’ineu (with the
apostrophe preventing the oi from being read as a diphthong and the Stress Rule
putting the stress correctly on the i) or heroíneu (with the stressmark itself
preventing the oi from becoming a diphthong). In these cases, the form with the
explicit stressmark (and no apostrophe) will be preferred – heroíneu.
But if neither vowel in a possible diphthong is stressed, an apostrophe will be
used to separate them. The apostrophe will also be used in the case of a 3syllable word with stress on the first and last syllables, where to mark the firstsyllable stress would lead the reader incorrectly to destress the final syllable. For
instance, coaliarh (= coalesce), which will be respelled co’aliarh instead of
cóaliarh.
In particular, respell the following:
Broartôn (= Brotherton Indian)
coagülarh (= coagulate)
coaliziun (= coalition)
metazôâ
outlooqieux (= outlook)
psüc’hoanalüçarh (= psychoanalyze)
retroactïu (= retroactive)
soloïstà (=soloist)
Bro’arton
cóagülarh
cóaliziun
metazóa
autlöqieux
psüc’ho’ánalüçarh
retro’actíu
solo’istá