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
ei e gate
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 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 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 take
th θ thin never as in that
u u crude
v v very allophone of /w/ before /u/ and /o/
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

Irathient allows various consonant clusters in onsets and codas, the maximal possible syllable is CCCVCCC, most consonants may be geminated but vowel sequences very rarely occur. Adjacent obstruents must agree in voicing, voicing assimilation is regressive. Sonorants and [v], an allophone of /w/, do not affect voicing. Syllables do not end with /l/ or /w/, and /h/ does not appear after stops and fricatives.