Appendix:Væyne Zaanics pronunciation

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The Væyne Zaanics language has 19 consonants, 13 vowels, and 2 glides.

Standard Romanization

Letter	IPA	English example	Notes
a	ɑ, ə	father, sofa	Becomes [ə] when unstressed in non-initial and non-pretonic positions, except in syllables ending with w, l, r, y or h.
æ	æ, ə	mat, sofa	Becomes [ə] when unstressed in non-initial and non-pretonic positions, except in syllables ending with w, l, r, y or h.
b	b	bother
c	k	skill
cgh	x	loch
ch	tʃ, ʃ	cheek, chic	Pronounced as an affricate at the beginning of a word and when following a consonant, pronounced as a fricative elsewhere.
d	d	dog
dj	dʒ	jog
e	e, ə	bait, sofa	Becomes [ə] when unstressed in non-initial and non-pretonic positions, except in syllables ending with w, l, r, y or h.
f	f	food
g	g	good
gh	x, ɣ	loch, fuego (Spanish)	Voiced between vowels and before voiced consonants, voiceless elsewhere.
h	h, silent	ham	Silent in syllable-final position.
i	i	machine
j	dʒ, ʒ	jog, azure	Pronounced as an affricate at the beginning of a word and when following a consonant, pronounced as a fricative elsewhere.
l	l	left
m	m	man	Does not assimilate.
n	n	no	Assimilates to a following consonant.
o	o, ə	moat, sofa	Becomes [ə] when unstressed in non-initial and non-pretonic positions, except in syllables ending with w, l, r, y or h.
p	p	span
r	r	perro (Spanish)
s	s	see
sch	ʃ	schmuck
t	t	stop
tch	tʃ	watch
tþ	θ	think
þ	θ, ð	think, then	Voiced between vowels and before voiced consonants, voiceless elsewhere.
u	u	rude
v	v	voice
w	w	wall
y	j	yawn
z	z	zoo
zj	ʒ	azure

Notes:

• Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel letter.

Phonetics

Consonants

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive/Affricate	voiceless	p	t	ch, tch [tʃ]	k
	voiced	b	d	j, dj [dʒ]	g
Fricative	voiceless	f	þ, tþ [θ], s	ch, sch [ʃ]	gh, cgh [x]	h
	voiced	v	þ [ð], z	j, zj [ʒ]	gh [ɣ]
Sonorant		w	l, r	y [j]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i, ii [iː]		u, uu [uː]
Mid	e, ee [eː]	e, o, æ, a [ǝ]	o, oo [oː]
Open	æ [æ], ææ [æː]		a [ɑ], aa [ɑː]

The vowels are divided into “light” (front) and “dark” (back) vowels:

• Light: æ, e, i and their long counterparts
• Dark: ɑ, o, u and their long counterparts

These categories play a role in the Yesuþoh script, for example. Schwa /ə/ is also a phonemic vowel, belonging to neither group.

Stress

Stress falls on the penultimate syllable if it is heavier than the antepenultimate, otherwise it falls on the antepenultimate. Secondary stress is placed on every other syllable radiating outward from the syllable with main stress.

The only exception is that an imperative subject clitic is always stressed even though it is usually the final syllable.

Short non-high vowels are all reduced to /ə/ when unstressed in non-initial and non-pretonic positions, except in syllables ending with /w/, /l/, /r/, /j/ or an underlying /h/.