Triparic Pronunciation

The Alphabet

The Triparic alphabet consists of 29 letters: the standard 26-letter English alphabet plus Æ, Ð, and Þ.

Letter	Name	Classical Sound	Reformed Sound	Classical Description	Reformed Description	Provisional Choice
A a	ah	/a/		Like in father.		same
Æ æ	æsch	/aɪ/		Like the word aye.		same
B b	beh	/b/		Like in ball.		same
C c	cheh	/c/, /k/, /s/	/k/	Like ⟨ch⟩ in church at end of words or before e or i; like in cell when marked with the cedilla (ç, see below); differently in the multigraphs sch, tsch (see below); elsewhere (before consonants, a, or o) like in cat.	Like in cap, except in the multigraphs ch and sch (see below). Never as in cell except when marked with the cedilla (ç); see below.	as reformed
D d	deh	/d/		Like in dog.		same
Ð ð	ið	/ð/		Like ⟨th⟩ in there.		same
E e	eh	/e/		Similar to ⟨ay⟩ in may, but less of a diphthong. More like the "pure" ⟨e⟩ in Romance languages.		same
F f	if	/f/		Like in fill.		same
G g	geh	/g/		Like in garden. Never as in Gerald.		same
H h	heh	/h/		Like in happy.		same
I i	ih	/j/ or /i/		When before another vowel, like ⟨y⟩ in yet; otherwise, like in machine.		same
J j	jeh	/dʒ/		Like in jump. Never as in jejeune.		same
K k	keh	/k/		Like in kid.		same
L l	il	/l/		Like in lamp.		same
M m	im	/m/		Like in magic.		same
N n	in	/n/		Like in now.		same
O o	oh	/o/		Similar to its sound in hope, but less of a diphthong. More like the "pure" ⟨o⟩ in Romance languages.		same
P p	peh	/p/		Like in party.		same
Q q	quh	/k/		Like in quick. Note that q stands without a u much more often in Triparic than in English.		same
R r	ir	/ɹ/		Like in red. This is the throaty "r" of American English rather than a trill.		same
S s	is	/s/, /z/	/s/	As in set except at the ends of words, where it is /z/ like in has, except when doubled (as "ss" or "ß").	Like in sad.	classical
T t	teh	/t/		Like in top.		same
Þ þ	þeh	/θ/		Like ⟨th⟩ in think.		same
U u	uh	/u/ or /w/		When before another vowel, like ⟨w⟩ in water; otherwise, like ⟨oo⟩ in goose.		same
V v	veh	/v/		Like in voice.		same
W w	weh	/w/		Like in water.		same
X x	ix	/ks/		Like in six.		same
Y y	yeh	/j/ or /i/		When before another vowel, like in yet; otherwise, like in pretty.		same
Z z	zeh	/z/		Like in zebra.		same

Diacritics

Some letters may be marked with diacritics to produce different sounds. These are not considered separate letters.

Glyphs	Name	Classical Sound	Reformed Sound	Classical Description	Reformed Description	Provisional Choice
Ä ä	ah-umlŏt	/eɪ/		Like ⟨a⟩ in rate.		same
Å å	ah-ring	/æ/		Like ⟨a⟩ in bath.		same
à ã	ah-tilde	/ə/		Like ⟨a⟩ in about.		same
Ç ç	cheh-çedil	/s/		Like ⟨c⟩ in certain.		same
Ê ê	(unnamed)	/e:/	—	Longer ⟨e⟩	Replaced consistently with ä	reformed
Î î	(unnamed)	/ɛ̃/	—	nasal "i" like in French fin	Replaced with i in most words; å in a few	same as reformed; maybe a few more cases of å
Ñ ñ	in-tilde	/ñ/	—	Palatalized "n" like ⟨ny⟩ in English canyon	Very rare. The diacritic was eliminated; where the sound was kept, spelled ⟨ny⟩.	gn
Ö ö	oh-umlŏt	/aʊ/	/œ/	Like ⟨ou⟩ in house.	No good English equivalent. Like in German Göttin. An approximation is the ⟨e⟩ in the syllable er.	Classical
Ŏ ŏ	oh-breve	—	/aʊ/	Not present in Classical Triparik.	Like ⟨ou⟩ in house.	Classical (i.e. none)
Ø ø	oh-schmiss	/œ/	/ɔɪ/	No good English equivalent. Like in German Göttin. An approximation is the ⟨e⟩ in the syllable er.	Like ⟨oy⟩ in boy.	Classical
Õ õ	oh-tilde	/ɔɪ/		Like ⟨oy⟩ in boy.	Not present after reforms.	Classical
Ô ô	(unnamed)	/o:/	—	Longer ⟨e⟩, as ⟨oa⟩ in English boat	No significant difference from o, so replaced with that	reformed
Ü ü	uh-umlŏt	/y/		No good English equivalent. Like in German müssen. Like the vowel i but with rounded lips.		same
Û û	(unnamed)	/õ/, /œ̃/	—	The website claimed it was like in French "non" (/õ/), but in practice it was more like in French "brun" (/œ̃/)	Approximated with ã, so replaced with that	reformed

Multigraphs

Finally, there are a few cases where a combination of letters is pronounced as a single phoneme.

Multigraph	Classical Sound	Reformed Sound	Classical Description	Reformed Description	Provisional choice
ch	/χ/	/tʃ/	Like in Bach.	Like in champ.	reformed
dh	/ð/	—	Like ⟨th⟩ in there. Inconsistently used along with ⟨ð⟩	Standardized to ⟨ð⟩ in reforms	reformed
gn	—	—			Adding for the ny in canyon sound (replacing Classical ñ).
ph	/f/		As in most modern European languages.		same
rr	/r/	—	Trilled R.	Eliminated in reforms
sch	/ʃ/		Like ⟨sh⟩ in ship.		same
ss / ß	/s/		In Classical, the sound /s/ or /s:/ was inconsistently written as ⟨ss⟩ or ⟨ß⟩. Reforms standardized this to ⟨ss⟩ only.		reformed
th	/θ/	–	Like ⟨th⟩ in think. Inconsistently used along with ⟨þ⟩	Standardized to ⟨þ⟩ in reforms	reformed
tsch	/tʃ/	—	Like ⟨ch⟩ in church.	Eliminated in reforms	reformed
zh		/ʒ/	Non-existent before reforms	Like ⟨z⟩ in azure.	Replaced throughout with ⟨j⟩ which remains /dʒ/

Stress

Triparic has stressed syllables. One syllable in each word (or each component, in a compound word) is the primary stressed one. Secondary stresses alternate from there; in other words, if the word has four syllables and the second has the stress, then the fourth has a secondary stress since there's an unstressed one (the third) between them. If the third syllable got the primary stress, then the first syllable would get the secondary stress, and so on.

The rule for determining the primary stressed syllable is a bit complicated, but is pretty regularly applied – there are very few exceptions. The rule is thus:

1. In an inflected verb with a tense or mood syllable (the -i- of the present subjunctive or the -ad-, -ar, -id-, or -ir- of the past or future), the tense/mood syllable receives the primary stress.
2. In any other word (including inflected verbs without a tense/mood syllable):
   1. First, find the actual "root" of the word. To do this, treat the word as if various derivational and inflectional suffixes are not present. Those suffixes are:
      1. plural and possessive markers for nouns and adjectives (-s, -es, -z);
      2. infinitive markers for verbs (-er, -en);
      3. derivational suffixes (-ãj, -an, -ie, -skaf, -stanz)
   2. Now, if in the root word there is a consonant cluster, meaning two or more different consonants not separated by a vowel, the last vowel preceding such a cluster receives the stress.
      1. Note that the digraph gn is a cluster (representing the consonant n followed by the consonant y); the letter x is also a cluster (representing k followed by s).
      2. But the multigraphs ch, dh, ph, sch, th are single consonants and are not clusters by themselves.
   3. But if in the root word there is no such consonant cluster, then the penultimate vowel of the root word receives the stress.
3. In compound words, each separate standalone word is accented as it would be alone.

As noted, there are very few exceptions, but not none. Those exceptions must be simply memorized.

Examples

In these examples, the primary stress syllable is in ALL CAPS; secondary stress syllables are in italics.

anjameur

There is a cluster, nj, so the vowel before that cluster is stressed. AN-ja-meur.

brökirasch

This is an inflected verb, the 2nd person plural future subjunctive of bröken. Since it has a tense/mood syllable, that is what is accented. brök-IR-asch.

burgogna

There is a cluster, gn (which is two consonant sounds: n-y), so the vowel before that cluster is stressed. bur-GO-gna.

cançellär

There is a cluster, nç, so the vowel before it is stressed. CAN-çel-lär. The pair ll is not two different consonants and thus does not move the stress.

çivilanskaf

The word has two derivational suffixes, -an, -skaf, and so its root is çivil, which has no consonant clusters, and therefore the penultimate vowel is stressed: ÇI-vil. The whole word is then ÇI-vil-an-skaf.

comensãj

The word has a derivational suffix, -ãj, and so its root is comens, which has a consonant cluster ns, and therefore the vowel before that cluster is stressed: co-MENS. The whole word is then co-MENS-ãj.

diplomerie

By the rules, this word should be stressed on the first syllable (because it is followed by the cluster pl) but this word is a very rare exception to be memorized: it is stressed di-PLO-me-rie.

kønigzjõnt

This is a compound word. The second word, jõnt, is a monosyllable and poses no problem. The first word, kønigz, has no clusters (if one removes the possessive derivational suffix -z) and therefore is accented on the penultimate vowel, KØ-nigz. The whole word then is KØ-nigz-JÕNT.

östragenstanz

This is a compound word. The first word, ös, is a monosyllable and poses no problem. The second word, when the derivational -stanz and infinitive -en are removed is just the monosyllable trag, so the whole word is ÖS-TRAG-en-stanz.

provåntzes

Without the plural -es, this word has two clusters, pr and ntz; the vowel before the last of these is stressed, so it is pro-VÅNTZ-es.

Key to Phonetics Symbols

Something written in ⟨angle brackets⟩ is one or more graphemes; that is, it represents something written. Something written in /slashes/ is one or more phonemes; that is, it represents the units of sound that speakers break their language down into. These are most properly written in the International Phonetic Alphabet.