Appendix:Shiväisith pronunciation
The Shiväisith language has 21 consonants, 8 vowels with two lengths and 1 glide.
Standard Romanization
Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
a | a | father | |
ä | æ | mat | |
d | d | dog | |
dh | ð | then | |
dj | ɟ | - | Like the g in ague, but in any context. |
e | e | bait | |
f | f | food | |
g | g | good | |
h | h | ham | |
i | i | beet | |
j | j | yawn | |
k | k | skill | |
l | l | left | |
m | m | man | |
n | n | no | Assimilates to a following velar consonant. |
o | o | moat | |
ö | ø | — | Like e pronounced with rounded lips. |
p | p | span | |
r | ɾ | — | Trilled when doubled. |
s | s | see | |
sh | ʃ | sheep | |
t | t | stop | |
th | θ | think | |
tj | c | - | Like the c in cute, but in any context. |
u | u | rude | |
v | v | voice | |
y | y | — | Like i pronounced with rounded lips. |
Phonetics
Shiväisith has a few true palatal sounds and a couple front rounded vowels, as well as a distinction between low front and back vowels. Doubled vowels above are longer in duration than short vowels, but are otherwise identical in quality to short vowels.
Consonants
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | nj [ɲ] | (n [ŋ]) | |||
Plosive | voiceless | p [p] | t [t] | tj [c] | k [k] | ||
voiced | d [d] | dj [ɟ] | g [g] | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | f [f] | th [θ] | s [s] | sh [ʃ] | h [h] | |
voiced | v [v] | dh [ð] | |||||
Lateral | l [l] | lj [ʎ] | |||||
Rhotic | r [ɾ] |
Notes:
- [n̠], [ŋ] and [ɴ] are in parentheses because they are not phonemes, but allophones of /n/. The phoneme /n/ assimilates to a following velar, uvular, or possibly even palatal consonant.
- [θ] is in parentheses because it occurs only in words of foreign origin, e.g. Dothraki [ˈdoθraki] "Dothraki."
- [x ~ χ] occurs in borrowings, or words that come directly from Ghiscari.
Vowels
Shiväisith has 8 phonetically distinct vowels which occur in two thematic contexts:
Regular | Unround | Round |
---|---|---|
Close | i [i], ii [iː] | u [u], uu [uː] |
Mid | e [e], ee [eː] | o [o], oo [oː] |
Open | a [ɑ], aa [ɑː] |
Fronted | Unround | Round |
---|---|---|
Close | i [i], ii [iː] | y [y], yy [yː] |
Mid | e [e], ee [eː] | ö [ø], öö [øː] |
Open | ä [æ], ää [æː] |
In the vowel harmony system of Shiväisith, i and e are neutral, and occur in both sets of vowels, even though they (often) trigger fronted agreement.
Diphthongs
Shiväisith has a number of diphthongs—so many that's it's esier to list those it doesn't allow as opposed to those it does. Suffice it to say most vowels can occur next to one another.