Triparic Pronunciation

THIS IS A DRAFT. Carrie and Shawn are revising things.

N.B. Both the digraph system and the accented-character system are acceptable native orthographies, but it's bad form to mix systems within one text.

Consonants

b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z		as in English
y		as in English when consonantal
g		always hard, as in English get
x		x as in axe, except z at beginning of words
q		Always part of a digraph "qu" for the cluster kw
c		Always "k" before a, o, u; always "s" before i, e
cz	č	ch as in church
sz	š	sh as in shoe
nz	ň	ny as in canyon
dz	ð	"dh", or th as in that
tz	þ	th as in think

Vowels

Original	Proposed	IPA	Sound	Variation
a, e, i, o, u			as in romance languages
ã (tãng, hãbby)		/ʌ/	hut	English "short U", not really close to /a/ at all
æ (ðæ, gæo)		/aɪ̯/	aye	Diphthong of /a/ + /i/
å (plåx, schåft)		/æ/	hat	/a/ fronted and raised
ä (häm)		/eɪ̯/	hate (same as ê)	Diphthong of /e/ + /i/
ê (dêm)		/eɪ̯/	hate (same as ä)	Diphthong of /e/ + /i/
î (wîn, trîmfer)		/ɛ̃/	nasal "i"	Between /e/ and /a/ and nasalized
ö (cö [sic], miaö)		/aʊ̯/	out	Diphthong of /a/ + /u/
õ (jõnt, drõt)		/ɔɪ̯/	boy	Diphthong of /o/ + /i/
ø (kønig, før)		/œ/	German Göttin	Between /e/ and /a/, rounded
ô (mäjordôm)		/o̞ʊ̯/	boat	Long /o/, or diphthong of /o/ + /u/
ü (fü, küssen)		/y/	German müssen	Rounded /i/
û (ûnçivilan)		/œ̃/	nasal "u"	Between /e/ and /a/, rounded and nasalized

Diacritics used in vowels and their roles

Diacritic	Uses
Tilde	For one palatalized consonant (ñ) For one completely different vowel (ã is not near a) For one -i diphthong, of the apparent vowel (õ = o+i)
Ring	For one fronted-and-raised vowel (å = fronted and raised a)
Aesch	For a diphthong that might be made of a+e but is usually analyzed as a+i
Umlaut	For one -i diphthong, but not the apparent vowel (ä = e+i) For one -u diphthong, but not the apparent vowel (ö = a+u) For one rounded version of a different vowel (ü = rounded i)
Slash	For one completely different vowel (ø = rounded between-e-and-a)
Circumflex	For two long diphthongized vowels, where the diphthong matches the frontedness of the apparent vowel (ê = ei, ô = ou) For two nasalized versions of a different vowel (î = nasalized between-e-and-a, û = î but rounded)

Carrie and Shawn discussion, 20 March 5:15pm

Points:

1. Eliminate the sound û, replacing it in the negative prefix with ã.
2. Eliminate the sound î, replacing it with å or i per root.
3. Respell ê with ä in all places.
4. Eliminate ô, respelling as o. Native English speakers are going to diphthong long Os whether we like it or not.
5. We now have this list of weird ones:
   • ã
   • ä
   • å
   • æ
   • ø
   • õ
   • ö
   • ü
6. Now, ä and ü match their German counterparts. Tri ø matches German ö; Tri ö is the only u-diphthong on this list, so let's swap the glyphs ø and ö, so now all three of ä ö ü match the German ones, and ø (the only slashed letter) is unique as the only u-diphthong.
7. These remain:
   • ã
   • å
   • æ
   • ø (in case we come up with some other way to write it)
   • õ

Additional notes by Shawn just following that talk

1. Ways to spell the /æ/ sound, as in "cat" or "hat" in languages using Latin letters: Most commonly by far are < a >, < ae > or < æ >, or < ä >.