|
Since Kwendyngu is written in its own alphabet, the following conventions have been followed in its transliteration:
Consonants
As in English, except:
C as the "ch" in "church."
D palatalized, that is, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the palate instead of the back of the teeth.
Dh as in "the."
Dzh as the soft g or English j.
G always hard.
J as in German (a consonantal "y").
Gh as a voiced version of "kh."
Kh as in German "ach."
L palatized as in German.
Lh as in Welsh "llaw" (voiceless "l").
Ll as in Spanish "ll." (Note: this is not the same as "j").
Ng as in "sing", never as in "anger."
R rolled as in Welsh, with tip of the tongue.
Rr as in English.
Rh as in Welsh (voiceless "r").
Sh as in "ship."
T palatalized, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the palate instead of the back of the teeth.
Th as in "thin", never as in "this."
Wh as in "when" (voiceless "w".)
Zh as the middle sound in "measure."
Vowels
While Kwendyngu is extremely well-equipped with consonants, it has only six pure vowels and three diphthongs, plus the blends arising from a "r" following a vowel.
The vowels are pronounced:
a - father
e - let
i - machine
o - mote
u - boot
y - a schwa, the unstressed vowel heard in the second syllable of "button." It is similar to that found in "hut," but not accented.
Vowels (except for "y") are lengthened (said longer than usual) at the end of words and in stressed syllables. Final nasals are lengthened in formal Kwendyngu, such as saying prayers or reciting myths.
Diphthongs
ai - as in "aisle"
au - as the "ou" in "out."
oi - as in "oil"
Other vowel combinations are pronounced separately, with a glottal stop between them. For example, "Mean" has two syllables.
Blends
ar - as in car
air - as in pyre
er - as in air
ir - as in ear
or - as in for
yr - doesn't exist in English; it is a schwa with an attached [r].
These blends are considered to be variations of the vowels rather than two-letter combinations and are written that way in Kwendyngu. They don't break the rule about not two consonants together.
When a word ending with a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, an "h" is added to the beginning of the second word. (This is not reflected in spelling.)
Words are accented on the penultimate syllable, unless that is a schwa (which is, by definition, unaccented). If it is, then the accent is shifted to the first syllable before the penultimate which has a non-schwa vowel. If all syllables are schwas except for the last one, that is the one which gets the stress. If there are only schwas, none of the syllables is given a stress.
|
Main Page 
