Appendix:Irathient pronunciation
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Standard Romanization
| Irathient | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | ɑ | father | |
| ai | ɑi | nice | |
| b | b | bad | |
| d | d | deck | |
| e | ɛ | get | never like a in gate |
| ei | e | gate | never like get |
| ə | ə | sofa | |
| f | f | feather | only used in borrowed words, not native to Irathient |
| g | g | goat | never as in genius |
| gy | ɟ | close to joke, eggyolk | used for /j/ in borrowed words |
| h | h | hop | always pronounced, even if at end of a word (except for sh and th digraphs) |
| hw | ʍ | when | |
| i | i | machine | |
| k | kʰ | kite | |
| l | l | love | always clear, never velarized "dark" [ɫ] |
| m | m | matter | |
| n | n | never | |
| ng | ŋ | sing | can occur at the start of a word; never as in anger |
| ngg | ŋg | anger | |
| ny | ɲ | onion | |
| o | o | hope | |
| p | pʰ | pike | |
| r | r | Spanish perro | may reduce to tap in some clusters |
| s | s | sad | |
| sh | ʃ | shack | used for [tʃ] when borrowing words |
| t | tʰ | take | |
| th | θ | thin | never as in that |
| u | u | crude | |
| v | v | very | |
| w | w | war | |
| z | z | zebra |
In some online sources /ɑ/ is spelled aa and the schwa /ə/ is spelled with a single a, as in aarko (DJP Tumblr). In that system the diphthong ai is spelled aai.
Word Stress
- Most words are stressed on the penultimate syllable.
- If a word's final or penultimate syllable contains ə, the stress is antepenultimate.
- Imperatives involve an accent shift towards the end of the word; ǝthít! go! (S1E1).
- Some verb auxiliary forms take a final accent.
- Some possessive suffixes are written attached to the noun, but do not cause a shift in accent, as in rólame my roller (S1E1).
- Borrowed words may have an irregular stress accent.
In dialogue meant for actors, the stress is always indicated with an acute accent.
Phonotactics and Allophony
- Adjacent obstruents must agree in voicing. Voicing assimilation is regressive. Sonorants do not affect voicing.
- w undergoes fortition to v before u and o: zlawe singer becomes zlavu in the plural, not *zlawu; zavo apothecary, pl. zawalə
- Coda w and l meld into the previous vowel:
- aw, al > o (e.g., thelo singing, but tlawe song; zavo apothecary, pl. zawalə)
- ul, uw, el, ew > u
- iw, il > u, but also palatalizes the previous consonant:
- s, t, th, h, k > sh
- z > sh (sometimes > gy)
- n, ng > ny
- d, g, l > gy
- Before a coda nasal, e > ei and a > o (e.g., spom tainted meat, plural spamə; drurein an Irathient fruit, plural drurenə), except before ny, which instead causes a > ai
Izra
The Irathient writing system, Izra, is described in this article (see also this Tumblr post).