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
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)

Shawn's thoughts on the vowel orthography

(To be discussed Sunday night 20 March or thereafter)

So the following sounds must be accounted for: AYE, bOY, hAtE, OUt, hAt, mÜssen, mÖgen, nasal I, nasal U.

Broken down phonetically we have:

1. The three common i-final diphthongs (aye, hate, boy = ai, ei, oi)
2. The most common of the u-final diphthongs (out = au)
3. Rounded front vowels (ü = rounded i/fronted u, ö = rounded e/fronted o)
4. Nasalized rounded and unrounded open-mid front vowels (nasal I, nasal U)
5. The schwa as in "tãng"
6. The odd man out is the ash vowel (hat, plåx), the near-open front unrounded vowel

Proposal 1

1. Maybe ai ei oi for aye, hate, boy.
2. au for au. So we are consistent that diphthongs are two-vowel clusters, different from pure-but-exotic vowels.
3. Keep ü and ö for what they are in German. So here the umlaut means "fronting".
4. Keep circumflex for these, î and û.
5. Keep ã for the schwa.
6. Use ä for the ash vowel. That's what it is in Finnish, and the umlaut could still mean "fronting". And if you front the sound "a", it moves up a bit and becomes the ash vowel.

Preserved: ü, î, û

Some classic words under this new orthography

áileäd	green	ailieid
äpril	April	eipril
bröken	to need	brauken
cö [sic]	lunch	czau
tãng	language, tongue	(no change)
çivilàn	citizen	civilan (maybe with grave on final syllable)
mäjordôm	prime minister, vizier	meijordom