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

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
Ä ä	ah-umlŏt	/eɪ/		Like ⟨a⟩ in rate.
Å å	ah-ring	/æ/		Like ⟨a⟩ in bath.
à ã	ah-tilde	/ə/		Like ⟨a⟩ in about.
Ç ç	cheh-çedil	/s/		Like ⟨c⟩ in certain.
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.
Ŏ ŏ	oh-breve	—	/aʊ/	Not present in Classical Triparik.	Like ⟨ou⟩ in house.
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.
Õ õ	oh-tilde	/ɔɪ/		Like ⟨oy⟩ in boy.	Not present after reforms.
Ü ü	uh-umlŏt	/y/		No good English equivalent. Like in German müssen. Like the vowel i but with rounded lips.

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
ch		/tʃ/		Like in champ.
sch		/ʃ/		Like ⟨sh⟩ in ship.
zh		/ʒ/		Like ⟨z⟩ in azure.

Sounds eliminated in 2016 Reform

Original	Sound	Replacement
î	nasal "i" like in French fin	Replaced with i in most words; å in a few
ñ	Palatalized "n" like ⟨ny⟩ in English canyon	Very rare. Replaced with ny if necessary.
ô	as ⟨oa⟩ in English boat	No significant difference from o, so replaced with that
û	nasal "u" like in French brun	No significant difference from ã, so replaced with that

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.