Triparic Pronunciation
The alphabet
The Triparik alphabet, upper and lower case forms, is:
Aa Ää Bb Cc Čč Dd Ðð Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Ňň Oo Öö Øø Pp Qq Rr Ss Šš Tt Þþ Uu Üü Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
(... need to put accents in here ...)
Consonants
Single letters
| b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, t, v, w, z | All as typically used in English. |
| c | Always /k/ before ⟨a, o, u⟩; always /s/ before ⟨i, e⟩. |
| g | Always hard, like in English get. |
| j | Always the voiced affricate like in English jump. |
| q | Only occurs as part of a digraph qu representing the cluster /kw/. |
| r | Throaty rather than trilled. Pronounced like the American English ⟨r⟩. |
| s | Pronounced /s/ in most contexts, except /z/ at the end of words after vowels or voiced consonants. When doubled, ss is always pronounced /s/, not /z/. This is like its behavior in English: consider "has", "kids", "lass". |
| x | As in English axe, except at beginning of words, where it is pronounced as /z/. |
| y | When before a vowel, consonantal as in English, as in yet. |
Digraphs
There are two acceptable orthographies for these consonants: digraphs, and accented letters. A given text should consistently use one or the other.
| Digraph | Accented | Sound |
|---|---|---|
| cz | č | As in English church |
| sz | š | As in English shoe |
| nz | ň | As the ⟨ny⟩ in English canyon |
| dz | ð | As the ⟨th⟩ in English that |
| tz | þ | As the ⟨th⟩ in English think |
Vowels
| Original | IPA | Sound |
|---|---|---|
| a, e, i, o, u | /a, e, i, o, u/ | As their common pronunciation in Romance languages |
| y | /i/ | When used vocalically, usually at the end of words, pronounced like i |
| ä[1] | /eɪ̯/ | as in English hate |
| å | /æ/ | as in English hat |
| ã | /ʌ/ | as in English hut |
| ă[2] | /aʊ̯/ | as in English out |
| æ | /aɪ̯/ | as English aye |
| ö[3] | /œ/ | as in German Göttin |
| ø[4] | /ɔɪ̯/ | as in English boy |
| ü | /y/ | as in German müssen |
Sounds eliminated in 2016 Reform
| Original | IPA | Sound | Replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| î | /ɛ̃/ | nasal "i" like in French fin | Replaced with i in most words; å in a few |
| ô | /o̞ʊ̯/ | as ⟨oa⟩ in English boat | No significant difference from o, so replaced with that |
| û | /œ̃/ | 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.