Appendix:Irathient pronunciation

From The Languages of David J. Peterson
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Standard Orthography

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)
w 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
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 ends in 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 dialog 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)

Izra

The Irathient writing system, Izra, is described on this Tumblr post.