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).
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 almost no 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 markers for nouns and adjectives (-s, -es);
      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.
   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.

Examples

anjameur

burgogna

cançellär

çivilanskaf

comensãj

diplomerie

kønigzjõnt

östragenstanz

provåntzes

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.