Appendix:Irathient orthography
Izra is an abugida used to write the Irathient language from the Syfy series Defiance.
Basics
Izra is written horizontally from left to right and does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, names are preceded by the symbol + so that they can easily be told apart from other words. It is typically written without spaces and instead uses a dot to separate words, for instance the phrase tha rikisa, meaning "goodbye", is written tha'rikisa.
In addition to playing a part in Irathient's morphology, the special interaction between the vowels /i/ and /a/ and the one between /u/ and /ɛ/ are both reflected in its orthography: the glyphs for the high vowels are obtained by adding dots to the ones for the associated low vowels (for instance the one for /i/, i, is derived from the one for /a/, a) and similarly, the glyphs for the /iC/ and /uC/ sequences are obtained by adding dots to the ones for the /aC/ and /ɛC/ sequences respectively (the one for /im/, im, is therefore derived from the one for /am/, am).
Vowels
The Izra script is an abugida, a writing system where each character represents a consonant with an inherent vowel sound that can be modified by diacritics. Izra combines consonants with preceding vowels to form distinct glyphs. Stand-alone vowel glyphs are only used at the end of words or, very rarely, in vowel sequences. The following are the stand-alone vowel glyphs in Irathient, presented in Izra's glyph order:
| Izra | IPA | Romanization | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ǝ | /ə/ | ǝ | |
| a | /a/ | a | |
| e | /ɛ/ | e | |
| i | /i/ | i | |
| u | /u/ | u | |
| ai | /ai/ | ai | |
| ei | /e/ | ei | Used to stand for /ɛi/. |
Because of technical constraints, it was not possible to use the letter ǝ in the show's scripts, so David J. Peterson had to devise an alternate romanization for them: /ə/ was romanized as a, /a/ as aa and /ai/ as aai. This wiki does not use this system, as the letter ǝ is supported.
Although Irathient also has the vowel /o/, Izra does not have a letter to write it because it arose due to sound changes which are not written (for instance, aw stands for /aw/ before a vowel but for /o/ elsewhere), there are multiple ways to spell it, one therefore has to memorize them.
Consonants
Each consonant in Irathient has seven different forms, depending on the preceding vowel. When the preceding vowel is /ə/, the glyph remains identical to its basic form. For example, /əm/ and /m/ are spelled in exactly the same way, m.
For instance, the word tlanǝs could be pronounced tlons, ǝtlons, tǝlons, ǝtǝlons, tlanǝs, ǝtlanǝs, tǝlanǝs or ǝtǝlanǝs, however, only tlanǝs is correct. This must be memorized, but there are certain rules and tendencies that guide pronunciation: if a noun starts with the glyph t, it is likely a noun class suffix (either Class III, Class XV, or Class XVI) and will either appear as /t/ or /ti/, if there is no /i/-glyph following t, it is with certainty pronounced as /t/. Similarly, /tl/ is a common and licit combination in Irathient, making the insertion of /ə/ unlikely. It is also improbable for an Irathient word to end in /ns/, so it is reasonable to assume that the schwa is present.
The complete set of vowel-consonant combinations in Irathient is provided below in Izra's glyph order:
| Nucleus → Next consonant (IPA) ↓ |
ǝ/∅ | a | e | i | u | ai | ei | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m (/m/) |
m | am | em | im | um | aim | eim | Word-finally or before a consonant, m and am are pronounced /om/ and romanized as om, and em is pronounced /em/ and romanized as eim, like eim. |
| b (/b/) |
b | ab | eb | ib | ub | aib | eib | |
| p (/p/) |
p | ap | ep | ip | up | aip | eip | |
| f (/f/) |
f | af | ef | if | uf | aif | eif | |
| n (/n/) |
n | an | en | in | un | ain | ein | Word-finally or before a consonant, n and an are pronounced /on/ and romanized as on, and en is pronounced /en/ and romanized as ein, like ein. |
| d (/d/) |
d | ad | ed | id | ud | aid | eid | |
| t (/t/) |
t | at | et | it | ut | ait | eit | |
| s (/s/) |
s | as | es | is | us | ais | eis | |
| z (/z/) |
z | az | ez | iz | uz | aiz | eiz | |
| s (/s/) |
ts | ats | ets | its | uts | aits | eits | Used to stand for /ts/. |
| z (/z/) |
dz | adz | edz | idz | udz | aidz | eidz | Used to stand for /dz/. |
| th (/θ/) |
th | ath | eth | ith | uth | aith | eith | |
| ny (/ɲ/) |
ny | any | eny | iny | uny | ainy | einy | Word-finally or before a consonant, ny and any are pronounced /aiɲ/ and romanized as ainy, like ainy, and eny is pronounced /eɲ/ and romanized as einy, like einy. |
| gy (/ɟ/) |
gy | agy | egy | igy | ugy | aigy | eigy | |
| sh (/ʃ/) |
sh | ash | esh | ish | ush | aish | eish | |
| ng (/ŋ/) |
ng | ang | eng | ing | ung | aing | eing | Word-finally or before a consonant, ng and ang are pronounced /oŋ/ and romanized as ong, and eng is pronounced /eŋ/ and romanized as eing, like eing. |
| g (/g/) |
g | ag | eg | ig | ug | aig | eig | |
| k (/k/) |
k | ak | ek | ik | uk | aik | eik | |
| h (/h/) |
h | ah | eh | ih | uh | aih | eih | |
| r (/r/) |
r | ar | er | ir | ur | air | eir | |
| l (/l/) |
l | al | el | il | ul | ail | eil | Word-finally or before any consonant other than /l/, l and al are pronounced /o/ and romanized as o, and el, il and ul are all pronounced /u/ and romanized as u. |
| w (/w/) |
w | aw | ew | iw | uw | aiw | eiw | Before o or u, w is pronounced /v/ and romanized as v. Word-finally or before a consonant, w and aw are pronounced /o/ and romanized as o, and ew, iw and uw are all pronounced /u/ and romanized as u. |
Reading Izra is rather straightforward, but because of mergers, there are several ways to spell some sounds, it is therefore not always possible to guess a word's correct spelling by hearing the word, the spelling must be memorized.
Geminates
Irathient employs a distinction between doubled (or geminate) consonants and singletons, denoted by a symbol placed after the doubled consonants, for instance /imː/ is spelt imm.
Importantly, the consonants p, t and k are written as geminates after nasals but are pronounced as singletons, so imppi is pronounced /impi/.
Numerals
Izra features a vigesimal numeral system borrowed from Castithan, which can be seen below:
| Arabic | Izra |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 8 | 8 |
| 9 | 9 |
| 10 | ) |
| 11 | ! |
| 12 | @ |
| 13 | # |
| 14 | $ |
| 15 | % |
| 16 | ^ |
| 17 | & |
| 18 | * |
| 19 | ( |
| 20 | 10 |
Punctuation
Basic punctuation marks used in Irathient include:
| Usage | Izra |
|---|---|
| Beginning of discourse | \ |
| Word separator | ' |
| Beginning and end of sentence | . |
| Question mark (with a to show both the initial and the final form) | ?a? |
| Quotation marks | [ ] |
| Hyphen | - |
| Proper name marker | + |