#depending on the preceding consonant

[enfaeutchie]

That POG moment when a language's /w/ patterns as velar

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

The ancestors of modern Ukrainians lived in dozens of premodern and modern principalities, kingdoms, and empires, and in the course of time they took on various names and identities. The two key terms that they used to define their land were “Rus” and “Ukraine”. (In the Cyrillic alphabet, Rus’ is spelled Русь: the last character is a soft sign indicating palatalized pronunciation of the preceding consonant.) The term “Rus’,” brought to the region by the Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries, was adopted by the inhabitants of Kyivan Rus’, who took the Viking princes and warriors into their fold and Slavicized them. The ancestors of today’s Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians adopted the name “Rus” in forms that varied from the Scandinavian/Slavic “Rus” to the Hellenized “Rossiia.” In the eighteenth century, Muscovy adopted the latter form as the official name of its state and empire. The Ukrainians had different appellations depending on the period and region in which they lived: Rusyns in Poland, Ruthenians in the Habsburg Empire, and Little Russians in the Russian Empire. In the course of the nineteenth century, Ukrainian nation builders decided to end the confusion by renouncing the name “Rus” and clearly distinguishing themselves from the rest of the East Slavic world, especially from the Russians, by adopting “Ukraine” and “Ukrainian” to define their land and ethnic group, both in the Russian Empire and in Austria-Hungary. The name “Ukraine” had medieval origins and in the early modern era denoted the Cossack state in Dnieper Ukraine. In the collective mind of the nineteenth-century activists, the Cossacks, most of whom were of local origin, were the quintessential Ukrainians. To link the Rus’ past and the Ukrainian future, Mykhailo Hrushevsky called his ten-volume magnum opus History of Ukraine-Rus’. Indeed, anyone writing about the Ukrainian past today must use two or even more terms to define the ancestors of modern Ukrainians. (..) Since the independent Ukrainian state’s creation in 1991, its citizens have all come to be known as “Ukrainians,” whatever their ethnic background.

Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine

[paizau]

I started watching the @letshaveabouba livestream on youtube, I'm 2 streams in and its really nice! the only bad thing is that because its a recording of a livestream I can't really add my input or share my ideas so I'm gonna blurt it all here.

The proto inventory they came up with is this:

In their documentation they put /a/ as a low central vowel, so its a classic 5 without /e/, but I decided for me I'll make it a square system, it'll make vowel stuff easier for me - so /i/ /u/ high, /æ/ (a for ease) /ɔ/ (/o/ for ease). I also interpreted the back consonants as +pharyngeal, and split the back non stops as one being a fricative and thr other an approximant, instead of having both be both.

regarding syllable structure, they came up with CCVT. I elaborated on it and made it #CC-VCCV-T#, which stands for:

initial cluster of any 2 different consonants allowed. yes, every cluster, even /jqa/ is allowed, but /tta/ is not.

intervocallic clusters of any 2 different consonants allowed, no 3 or more consonants in a row. so /aqba/ but not /ut.ska/

word finally only single consonants allowed, and specifically only alveolars. /klat/ not /pgum/

regarding sound changes, they talked about tone, and having epinthetic vowels breaking up initial clusters and vowel lowering. These are the sound change I came up with to achieve these goals, and some other stuff that seemed cool to me:

Tonogenesis: high tone after voiceless consonants, low tone after voiced. A voiceless consonant preceded by a voiced one gives low tone, and voiced preceded by voiceless gives high tone: /tá/, /dà/, /ntà/, /kná/. Im pretty sure something similar happens in tibetan, but it has aspiration involved, and im not going to have that, so this is only inspired by it.

voicing assimilation: stops and fricatives assimilate to the voicing of a following consonant of the same cluster. now tone is phonemic :) yay: /kná/ > /gná/, /ztì/ > /stì/, but /ntì/, /lsì/ stay as is.

pharyngeal spreading: a consonant in a cluster with a pharyngealized or back consonant become pharyngeal aswell: /psˁì/ > /pˁsˁì/, /ħɡʷà/ > /ħɡʷˁà/.

epinthetic vowel insertion: a vowel is inserted between all initial clusters. its quality depends on the surounding consonants. if one of them is palatal its /i/, if one of them is labialized velar, its /u/. if its both, it depends on the initial cons. else its /a/: /ctú/ > /citú/, /skʷò/ > /sukʷà/, /wɲù/ > /wuɲù/, /tkú/ > /takú/. idk what tone the new syllable gets I haven't thought about that.

pharyngeal lowering: vowels are lowered as follows after pharyngealized and back consonants: /i/ > /e/, /u/ > /o/, /æ, ɔ/ > /ɑ/. now we have 7 phonetic vowels - /i, u, e, o, ɛ, ɔ, ɑ/ yayyy yippee I love big vowel systemsss!! /tˁicˁá/ > /tˁecˁɑ́/ etc.

/ji/ /wu/ > /i/ /u/: because I don't like those sequances. I also think /wra/ >> /urà/, /jki/ >> /igì/ is pretty cool.

Here the current inventory after these changes:

and a few notes:

phonemic destinction between H and L tones

kept the lowered vowels allophones. You could just make pharyngealization go away and phonemicize the vowels but I like this gigantic inventory better lol

Potential /q ħ ʕ/ > /ʔ ∅ ∅/, to make the vowels phonemic. maybe /q/ > /k/. or even /q/ > ∕∅/ aswell?? it'll be a bold decision to make

syllable structure - #CVCCVT#. Initial clusters are now forbidden, but everything else is the same. I think V{j, w, ɰ, ħ, ʔ}C can lead to vowel length or more qualities or something, the sequance has potential.

So yeah this is all the ideas I have in my head rn, I hope it was an interesting read lol. I also recommend you go and watch the streams yourself, the vibe is very nice and help the creative juices flow, like I'm really happy with what I came up with here based on their protolang. it was like a fun colab challenge thing :) here's a link to the channel:

[sixofcrowdaydreams]

Crow Names Written in Kerch

Here are all of the Crow's names written in a Kerch alphabet. Just for fun. (And the vowel discrepancy and subsequent meltdown I had trying to write Wylan's names.)

So some things of note while creating this...

I am not an artist and drawing fictional letters is hard.

Your eye/my lighting and camera are not bad, the paper is a soft purple color left over from Valentine's Day.

More importantly:

When in doubt about spelling, I stuck to the English direct letter translation for the spelling.

For example: Inej's last name Ghafa, starts with a G so I wasn't sure whether to use the regular G or the GH character, which in words like laugh, does not use a hard G and sounds more like an F. I used the GH.

While the Kerch alphabet uses a J/Y (ja/ya) the Y at the end of Jesper's last name is written as a vowel, EE.

I actually didn't see the second chart that went into more detail about the vowels connecting to the consonants until after I wrote the names. Therefore, I didn't see the difference between the soft A (example: apple) and hard A (example: can). Technically, that means soft A character in Kaz, Nina, and Matthias' should be longer.

Aaaaand now I realize I messed up Nina's name too. Instead of a soft I, the EE vowel should have been used.

Unpictured, I also wrote out Six of Crows. There is no letter X in Kerch, unless I read the charts wrong. So in Kerch there is only the Si-- of Crows. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wylan (his names deserves their own list of bullet points) and Matthias:

There is no hard I (as in ice) sound in Kerch, according to the the two character/letter charts I saw (linked above). HAVE WE BEEN PRONOUNCING WYLAN'S NAME WRONG THIS WHOLE TIME?!

Seriously, did I not read the charts correctly?

So in the first photo (left) I wrote his Wylan's name using the soft I just in case the vowel, like English could be used as hard or soft depending on the word. But, given that the other vowels in Kerch, like hard A, E, and O are written differently than soft A, E, and O, I don't think this is likely.

The spelling with the soft I (example: igloo) would pronounce his name as Will-lan

I also wrote Wylan's name using the hard E (which makes his name pronounced Wee-lan) in the 2nd photo (right). Personally, I'm inclined to believe it would be written this way, but there's literally no precedent, the points are made up and the rules don't matter!

The lack of hard I vowel would effect Matthias too, but I didn't realize that until after his name was written. (Matt-- i-as or Matt-ee-as: he probably hates Kerch as a language for this reason, let's be real)

Mildly related, but I feel Wylan and Matthias's pain. I moved across the world and now live within a language and alphabet that does not recognize a letter in my name. The consonant just doesn't exist. So the sound and letter use similar sounding substitutes.

The English spelling of Eck uses the letters C and K, but I wasn't sure if Kerch would combine the letters into one sound. Therefore I wrote both for funsies. Not sure which I aesthetically prefer.

The same C and K issue came up writing Hendricks too. So I wrote an example of of the English directly translated spelling and the combined K sound too just to see what they would look like.

Thanks for letting me nerd out about the Kerch language used in Shadow and Bone. It was super fun!

[unbearable-lightness-of-ink]

so anyway I really did start compiling a kinyarwanda/english dictionary/grammar guide out of all the random resources i've been hoarding on my phone (it doesn't have to be great, it just has to be better than searching multiple different files every time I'm looking for some obscure vocab or grammar detail) and one of these resources is some PDF uploaded to the internet archive and it's... not great. from the writing and contents it's clearly

old (my guess is mid-1900s. I don't remember colonial and post-colonial Rwandan history specifically enough to guess well here, but based on some of the typos, it was done on a typewriter and then scanned with OCR)

intended for missionaries (some examples of actual sentences in the "translate this" exercises include "I praise God because He saved me and He gave me peace and joy" and, I shit u not, "The blind man cannot see the Word of God, but he can hear and he can know the love of Jesus." it's. well for one thing this is basically useless vocabulary for me, and also it's cringe af)

written by someone who was not a linguist (at one point instead of just saying "if T is preceded by an unvoiced consonant, it turns into D" they give you a list of every unvoiced consonant and then recommend that you invent a mnemonic phrase to memorise the list?! why?)

written by someone who was shit with pronunciation (legit so many places where they're like "there's no way to describe how this sounds, you just have to ask someone to make the sound for you" my good bitch the phoneme might not be in english but I could describe it just fine. skill issue.)

but the thing that's really killing me about all this is that every time they try to explain tonal vowels or phonemes that aren't in english, they tell you to "ask an African to say it for you."

an. an what now? an African? babe there are approximately 1.5 billion people in Africa. Africa accounts for about 20% of the land on earth, it's the second-biggest continent, and it has an estimated two thousand living languages spoken throughout the continent.

and kinyarwanda? it has maybe 15-25 million native speakers, depending on which source I trust. it's spoken (almost*) exclusively in rwanda, which is the 9th smallest country in Africa--and that roundup includes islands off the coast of the continent. It has the second densest population in Africa but it still only has like 13 million people in it. and it's a very unique language. its closest relatives do not have the same phonemes that kinyarwanda has, and its closest relatives are also spoken by relatively few people. I don't know enough about kirundi to say much but I do know that it doesn't have the same vowel tones in all instances and it doesn't have some of the same consonant clusters. and the more widely spoken related languages that you're more likely to stumble on someone who knows how to speak? they're even worse for a reference; ask someone who speaks kiswahili to pronounce kinyarwanda for you and they will not pronounce the difference between, say, umuceri (rice) and umucyeri (berry), or the tonal difference between words like umusambi (floor mat) and umusambi (crested crane).

so, like. it's just absolutely sending me, this random white lady who was obviously a colonialist missionary, bothering to make a whole language guide to teach me how to proselytise in kinyarwanda, but along the way she's like "just ask an african--any african--how to say this" lady less than 1% of them are going to know this language but go off i guess

*almost because there's the diaspora of rwandan expats and immigrants in other countries plus the banyamulenge which is a whole aspect of it that has so much fraught history on all sides that I won't even try to say something intelligent about it, it's totally not my place/something i'm educated enough about, but to my knowledge most of them speak dialects that are more or less dissimilar to kinyarwanda; kinyamulenge and kinyabwisha are not the same as kinyarwanda. take it from my munyamulenge coworker who could never pronounce the difference between c and cy

[galacticsand]

Movelang #001 - Phonology and Sound System

Nophhurra, and hello again everyone! It's time for another post showing off my experimental conlang, Movelang! This time around, I'll be going over Movelang's sound system: the consonants and vowels used, along with a currently loosely-defined syllable structure, as well as allophony!

Admittedly, the Phonology has been one of the aspects of Movelang which has been altered several times over, and has gone through several iterations before reaching the point at which it exists in the present. Since the emphasis for this conlang was moreso on grammar than on the phonoaesthetic, I had largely loosely defined it at the start, with only a vague idea of what Movelang would sound like. At the start, I took a lot of inspiration from the Coptic Language, as well as several African and Caucasian Languages. Later on as I began being more deterministic about the phonetic inventory of the language, it did change from this original vision in several ways, but I ended up ultimately with something I really like!

(My charts tend to prioritize neatness over exactness, so if there's a sound somewhere that doesn't exactly describe it completely correctly, please don't fight me 😭)

Phonemically, the consonant inventory consists of 2 nasals, 15 plosives, 4 fricatives, 2 liquids, and 1 tap. The plosives are split three ways by mode of articulation, where 5 stops are unaspirated: /p t t͡ɕ k q/, 5 stops are aspirated: /pʰ tʰ t͡ɕʰ kʰ qʰ/, and 5 are voiced: /b d d͡ʑ g ɢ/. Each mode of articulations contains a labial, dento-alveolar, palatal, velar, and uvular stop respectively. This was a choice inspired by both Ancient Greek, as well as the Coptic and Caucasian influence I mentioned earlier, and in an earlier version of the phonology, the palatal affricates were instead alveolar affricates: /t͡s t͡sʰ d͡z/. Accompanying the stops are 4 fricatives that roughly match 4/5 of the same manners of articulation: /s ɕ x ħ/. These were selected mainly for that reason, that they lie in the same POA as their stop counterparts, but I decided to throw in an oddball for the fricative furthest towards the back of the mouth. Originally, this was /h/ phonemically, but I was intrigued by Maltese's presence of /ħ/ as the sole voiceless fricative closest to the back of the mouth, so I decided to do this for Movelang, and I do love how it sounds! I personally think /x/ and /ħ/ pair nicely with each other! The Approximants and Nasals then weren't that hard to reckon, I simply filled in the gaps in the chart respectively. When I got to my /l/ sound though, I decided to make this a little bit different as well, and follow the lead of Mongolian, and make it /ɮ/ instead. I also made the decision to omit /w/ or any similar sound, since I have a habit of using this sound a lot whenever I make new sound systems, as a bit of a monkey-wrench to try and make myself work with.

For Allophony, most of this deals with the pronunciation of consonants. There are 3 major rules that come into effect when pronouncing consonants in particular places within a word. First, the nasals, /m n/, devoice to /m̥ n̥/ whenever they are preceded by a syllable that has an aspirated plosive in the coda, any of /pʰ tʰ t͡ɕʰ kʰ qʰ/. Secondly, /ɮ/ may devoice to /ɬ/ when next to any voiceless sound: a voiceless plosive or fricative. Finally, the alveolar tap /ɾ/ becomes trilled /r/ when it is geminated. These rules as you'll notice mostly depend on a sound's locale within a syllable, which I'll explain in greater detail when discussing syllable structure...

As for the vowels, these are quite simple. Movelang consists of seven phonemic vowels, which compliment the front and the back of the mouth. Movelang contains no phonemic length, tone, nasality, or anything else that would affect vowel quality in this way, at least phonemically, and only has these 7 plain oral vowels. There are 3 front vowels: /ɛ e i/, all of which are unrounded, and 4 back vowels: /ɑ ɔ o u/, all of which are rounded, except for the open back vowel.

In terms of vowel allophony, nothing really major happens to vowels. The only major rule which takes place with vowels, is that /ɑ/ goes to /a/ when near a palatal sound.

Additionally, the syllable shape in Movelang is pretty straightforward, it's pretty much CVC, but with a few additional caveats. The main difference, is that /j/ cannot be a coda consonant, which is reflected by the use of D for the coda consonant in my syllable shape notation, and additionally, only 6 consonants can end a word: /m t k q s r/, which is reflected by the use of K for a word-final coda consonant.

In addition to these tactical features, hiatus is permitted in Movelang, meaning that the onset consonant in syllables is optional even word-internally, and when this happens, the parallel vowels flow together smoothly, rather than having some epenthetic consonant placed between them, like a glottal stop. Gemination also happens quite frequently in Movelang, especially in compounds, and it is under these circumstances when /j/ technically can appear in the coda of a syllable, but only as a part of a geminate /j:/.

=-=-=-=

Alright! Well, that's pretty much it for phonology, at this point I'm going to try and stick to this phonology and not impulsively change it again, but knowing me, I can't make any promises XD. I hope you all enjoyed this look at the sound system! I look forward to posting some lexical samples in the next post, with these sounds intact, where I'll be showing you Movelang's class system in action! More on that later of course... Until then, I look forward to it, and I hope you all enjoyed this post! If you all have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment, or an ask!

[kuraikyu]

@kuroyrii : Quietly places flowers in his hair, she quickly turns to conceal her laughter only to snicker, "The colors go well with your complexion"

In the miscellany of woodland monoculture, she found him once again in the embrace of solitude listening to the sound of the water falling and the sighing of the wind in trees, malformation of mossy stairs carved to the mountainside reminding of an old stronghold long forgotten. His targets less inclined to drive to natural places for enjoyment, now laying lifelessly on the pile not far than a halfcropped kilometer. There will hardly be an ounce of anything but bones and ashes consumed soon either by flames or rot. Monkeys still refuse to put envy of his people behind them, they may still begrudge Sorcerers in their relics and things of beauty; he remembered such fact with each wipe of crimson from his face.

Blood was a peculiar thing that made even most cultured and neat man look like a wild beast in stillness, it could bore cute pink blush or deep brown spots. His sense for restoration dark yet mighty, carrying visual trademarks like insignia of battle on sword. Eyes like pits of smoldering opiates after ferocity of fresh kill.

A kindred spirit dances among trees, her every cadence a bravado breaking etiquette in moonlit gait, stalwart and dependable from both sundry and mirthful times of their storied history, masterful in the art of hunting and stealth, stiff-necked and suspicious only by wit of her tongue, the black lily that comes seeping with fanged smile more liberated than ever before, intruding reverie of his seclusion with ignorance to the carnage behind. The God Hand must have followed the track from sudden outburst of cursed energy evoked by his special grade. She would not ask what had transpired there, instead, it was her hands that spoke louder secrets in her stead, and he almost understood their unhinged language where he recalled distinct soothing. Captivity may prove too great a strain for bunny, so her crimson rather concealed on him colors that came to life and blossomed with his dark excellence when the odds were stacked against them. Something entangled among straight carbon strands. A brisk blink of fluttering lashes sorting inventory in perceptional warehouse of thinking, evoking perplexion, discarding creeping mildew, and awakening consonance from grim tidings. What is this? There's something on his head. Hand wandered up to test out his new enlightened image, caressing something soft and what's next in line for commendation when he realized what kind of structure formed under his fingertips, touch becomes light as a caterpillar's footsteps, drinking in the aromas of velvets producing scent from each little twist. Those were petals from vivid flowers, from what still left of seasonly green; jewel gift of flora that loomed on him like a black crown. Heartbeat skipped up with increasing pulse into his very throat. Sayuri might be the first step in some scheme crammed into small rooms. He breathed out in realization, '' Today I am all soil and ruin and yet you still can't help yourself but to be personally accountable for my beautification? Thought you'd have more urgent errands to undertake like entertaining snoozy patrons. If you ever decide to repeat such practioning in public be wary; it could make some women jealous. '' From string of defense, chuckle preceded deficit in melting venom. Thank you. Rivulets and bouncing waterdrops provided natural a reflection pool for him to lean in closer and check his new decoration. An apparition emerges from behind large oak; manifesting several meters away from them; offering a lined humanoid grin covered by sleeve of vermilion kimono.

'Well?' - a grin the one she could not see while he seemed so distracted and enchanted by blossoms in his strands. Or he purposely pretended to be distracted. 'You want her, don't you? Try and get her.~'

[language-kitty]

Conlang Year - Phonology

Important update before I get into the phonology, I have decided on a name for this language. I am calling it Awloya and the speakers are called the Awlo.

Awloya’s consonants are:

/m n ɲ ŋ/ m n nh ng

/p b t d c ɟ k ɡ/ p b t d c j k g

/s z/ s z

/w l j/ w l y

The only notable feature of this consonant inventory is the palatal series. I was considering including prenasalized stops, but after playing around with them I found they didnt fit the aesthetic Im going for. I plan bringing in more fricatives as I evolve the language.

/l/ becomes /ʎ/ before we palatals /ɫ/ before velars.

The sequence /ng/ is written as <n’g> to distinguish it from /ŋ/, which is written as <ng>

Awloya’s vowels are:

/i e ä o u/ i e a o u

Fairly standard 5 vowel system

Phonotactics

Awloya has a maximal syllable structure of (C)V(S). C being consonants, V being vowels, and S being sonorants (m, n, nh, ng, w, l, and y).

Stress falls on final syllable if it is closed, otherwise the penultimate syllable is stressed.

Phonotactic restrictions:

No nasal except /n/ can precede a fricative

/n/ cannot precede /ɲ/ or /ŋ/

/ɲ/ cannot precede another nasal or /j/

Vowel hiatus is not allowed. In the case that two vowels are next to each other, an epenthetic approximant is inserted between the two depending on the second vowel. /j/ before /i/ or /e/, /w/ before /u/ or /o/, and /l/ before /.

And that’s it for this post! See yall soon!

[les-mis-in-space]

How to pronounce Pabchoni words

Pabchoni is a language spoken by the Pabchoni species native to Embaril. Originally, Pabchoni was written with its own alphabet, but now uses the Tionese alphabet. Pabchoni orthography differs from Tionese orthography significantly. This is how the consonants of the Pabchoni alphabet is transliterated and pronounced:

β— b (b as in book)

γ— g (g as in gold)

δ— d (d as in down, or j as in jump when followed by an ε, η or ι)

ζ— z (z as in zap, or s as in pleasure when followed by an ε, η or ι)

κ— k (k as in kill)

λ— l (l as in love)

ν— n (n as in new)

π— p (p as in planet)

ρ— r (r as in Concordian bru’chun)

σ— s (s as in seek, or sh as in shoot when followed by an ε, η or ι)

τ— t (t as in test, or ch as in child when followed by an ε, η or ι)

χ— ch (silent)

Pabchoni does not use the Tionese letters ξ, θ, φ or ψ.

Originally, Pabchoni did not indicate vowels in writing. However, this changed when switching over to the Tionese alphabet. Tionese vowels are pronounced thusly:

α— a (a as in father)

ε— e (e as in egg)

η— ē (i as in trick)

ι— i (i as in elite)

о— o (o as in Mandalorian vod, or u as in but when unstressed)

υ— u (oo as in look)

ω— ō (o as in go)

The Pabchoni letter χ makes no sound on its own, but when paired with certain other letters, it changes the sound of that letter.

βχ— bch (v as in vote, or f as in figure when followed by an ε, η or ι)

γχ— gch (y as in yes)

Because the sound of certain Pabchoni consonants are dependent on the following vowel, vowels can be preceded by a silent letter. The consonant follows the rule of the silent letter; for example, δα is pronounced “da” while δεα is pronounced “ja.”

Pabchoni also includes four diphthongs:

ει— ei (a as in late)

αο— ao (ow as in now)

ου— ou (oo as in trooper)

οε— oe (oi as in droid)

Finally, though the letter χ makes no sound without the letters β or γ, it is sometimes found without these letters, such as in the name Κουδωχ, which is pronounced Koodo. Pabchoni words are always stressed on the second-to-last syllable, which is why Pabchoni does not make use of a stress indicator as in Tionese.

[culmaer]

it's not not legit... it's an ad hoc way of using Tengwar (the Elvish alphabet) to write English

the vowels go on top of the conconants that precede them, as they do in Quenya or High Elvish (they go on following consonant in Sindarin or Grey Elvish, which btw, was the language spoken in the films) but the consonantal values don't line up perfectly with the Quenya

for example, the letter given above for C was indeed transliterated by Tolkien with <c> and makes a [k] sound. the letter above for K should be the same, but instead gives the letter for <qu> [kʷ], and the letter given for QU is really <nqu> [ŋkʷ]. similarly the letter for G above is really <ngw> [ŋgʷ].

the English J-sound doesn't exist in Elvish ; the letter given for J above is really the <g> [g] (well, the plain voiced stops [b d g] are technically the Sindarin pronunciations, not Quenya, but close enough)

the so-called "red-R" and "car-R" also don't represent different sounds, they're simply different versions of the <r> depending on whether there's a vowel following/above them or not.

now to be clear, this isn't meant as a criticism per se. just like there were different modes of Tengwar for writing Quenya and Sindarin, it stands to reason that there can be a different mode for writing English. Tolkien himself never settled on one, official, consistent way to transcribe English in Tengwar. so the above method is fine if that's how you want to do it... Just be aware that it's not how the alphabet is used to write either version of Elvish, and it's also not the only way to use it for English. other fan systems will be different

YOU WANNA LEARN ELVISH?! HERE YA GO!

[readmenotes]

The Role of Vowel Sounds in Article Selection

The selection of indefinite articles in English is heavily influenced by vowel sounds. Words that start with a vowel sound, such as “honest,” should be preceded by “an,” regardless of whether the written word starts with a vowel or consonant. In this section, we’ll explore the identification of vowel sounds and the exceptions and irregularities affecting article selection in English.

Identifying Vowel Sounds in English Words

Understanding the pronunciation of words is essential for selecting the correct indefinite article. Vowel sounds are represented by the letters a, e, i, o, and u and are important in determining whether to use “a” or “an” before a word. Although some words may visually start with a consonant, their pronunciation can lead with a vowel sound. For example, the word “honest” starts with the consonant “h,” but its pronunciation begins with the vowel sound of “o.” Thus, the correct usage is “an honest.”

Here is a simplified guide to recognize vowel sounds in English words:

Words starting with a, e, i, o, or u and have a clear vowel sound should be preceded by “an.” For example: an apple, an egg, an island, an ocean, or an umbrella.

Words starting with a silent consonant letter, like “h,” followed by a vowel sound should also be preceded by “an.” For example: an hour, an honest, or an heir.

Exceptions and Irregularities in Pronunciation

English pronunciation has its share of exceptions and irregularities, which can affect the choice of indefinite articles. For instance, a word that starts with a vowel letter but has an initial consonant sound should be preceded by “a” instead of “an.” Take the word “uniform,” which starts with the vowel “u” but is pronounced with a “y” sound, akin to a consonant; therefore, it should be “a uniform,” not “an uniform.”

"Pronunciation, rather than spelling, is the key to selecting the appropriate indefinite article in English."

Other examples of irregularities in pronunciation include:

Words starting with “h” where the “h” is pronounced. For example: a hat, a house, or a horse.

Words with the vowel “u” pronounced as a “y” sound. For example: a university, a useful, or a united.

Words starting with “eu” or “ew” pronounced as “y.” For example: a eulogy, a European, or a ewe.

By improving your understanding of vowel sounds, English pronunciation, and exceptions in English phonetics, you’ll be able to select the correct indefinite article when using “a” or “an” before a word and avoid common errors in everyday communication.

‘An Honest’ vs. ‘A Honest’: A Grammatical Explanation

Understanding the grammatical rules behind the proper use of indefinite articles is crucial for using proper English in both written and verbal communication. The choice between “an honest” and “a honest” may seem tricky at first, but the answer lies within the initial sound of the word “honest.” The letter ‘H’ is silent, causing the word to start with a vowel sound, specifically the sound of the letter ‘O’.

Generally, the indefinite article “an” is used before words that begin with a vowel sound, while “a” is used before words beginning with a consonant sound. Since the initial sound of “honest” is a vowel, the correct form to use is “an honest” and not “a honest.” This applies whether you’re referring to an honest person, an honest review, or an honest day’s work.

Remember, the choice between “an” and “a” depends on the sound of the word following the article, not the actual first letter of the word.

“An” is used before vowel sounds, while “a” is employed before consonant sounds, regardless of the actual first letter of the word.

[alustadh01]

What Is Madd In Tajweed, Its Types And Common Differences?

Madd, meaning "extension" or "prolongation" in Arabic, refers to the lengthening of specific vowel sounds in the recitation of the Quran. It plays a crucial role in Tajweed, ensuring the correct pronunciation and preservation of the Quran's meaning and beauty.

Here's a detailed breakdown of Madd in Tajweed:

1. The Letters of Madd:

There are three letters associated with Madd, known as Huruf al-Madd:

Alif (ا)

Waw (و)

Ya (ي)

These letters must be silent (without a vowel sound) and preceded by a vowel sign (Fatha, Damma, or Kasra) depending on the letter:

Alif: Preceded by Fatha (e.g., غَافِرٌ - Ghafoor)

Waw: Preceded by Damma (e.g., وَالضُّحَى - Ad-Duhaa)

Ya: Preceded by Kasra (e.g., رَحِيمٌ - Raheem)

2. Types of Madd:

There are seven main types of Madd, each with specific rules and varying lengths of extension:

Madd Asli (Natural Madd): This is the inherent lengthening of the Madd letter due to its nature. It extends for two counts.

Madd Far'i (Branching Madd): This lengthening occurs when a Madd letter is followed by a hamza (ء) without a vowel sign. It extends for two counts.

Madd Wajib (Obligatory Madd): This occurs when a Madd letter sits at the end of a word and is followed by a pause (Waqf). It extends for two to six counts depending on the recitation style.

Madd Jaiz (Permissible Madd): This allows for the lengthening of a Madd letter even when it's not followed by a pause, but only in specific contexts. It extends for one to four counts.

Madd Muttasil (Connected Madd): This type of Madd occurs when a Madd letter is followed by another Madd letter within the same word. The first Madd is slightly extended for one count.

Madd al-Lin (Madd of Ease): This is a subtle lengthening applied to a Madd letter at the end of a word followed by a Sukun (no vowel sign) and then another letter with a vowel. It extends for less than one count.

Madd Aridh Li-s-Sukun (Madd due to Sukun): This lengthening occurs when a Madd letter has a Sukun and is followed by a word that begins with a consonant. It extends for one to two counts.

Intrigued to learn more about Madd and elevate your Quranic recitation? Dive deeper into our comprehensive guide on Madd in Tajweed, exclusively on Alustadh Academy. This in-depth exploration will equip you with the knowledge and practical guidance to master this essential Tajweed skill.

You can learn more and get benefits with us:

Quran memorization course

Quran tafseer course

Best online tajweed course

Advanced Arabic course

[euclideanamphibian]

Some people have accents or speech impediments that are most notable in certain sounds.

Also, sound systems in languages, especially if they aren't related, are something you need to practice. Mandarin Chinese is nice because the pinyin system of pronunciation is reliable (unlike English), but the sounds and tonals do take some practice to get used to. It uses the ü sound a lot which English doesn't have at all (and is therefore very tricky to grasp for English speakers) and it's presence is often more implied depending on the preceding consonants.

I'm not saying it doesn't frustrate me a little when people badly mispronounce things but it's way worse if they don't even acknowledge it.

youtubers love to say “i hope i’m pronouncing that correctly” while recording themselves in a video that they upload to the internet, which they have access to

[bonmonjour]

Spelling Reform VI: Yod

Palatalization in English happens in two main ways, which I will here call Trochaic and Long U palatalization.

Trochaic Palatalization

This form happens to a few consonants when they appear in a unstressed ultimate syllable preceded by a stressed penultimate syllable, and have a front vowel (i, y) followed by another vowel orthographically (a, o, u, sometimes e). The reason I call it Trochaic is because this only happens when the last pair of syllables in multi-syllabic words form a trochee. I know the definition seems a bit hard to understand, but some examples will hopefully clear this up.

I don't know why ⟨t⟩ represents /s/ but it does and I don't want to change an established pattern like this one.

As you can see, the trochaic palatalization for ⟨c⟩ yields a different sound than regular softening. I think this is because in this case, the ⟨ci⟩ is standing for /s/ which then itself gets palatalized to /ʃ/. The pattern for ⟨g⟩ is the exact same, but I thought I would include it for completeness.

Why does ⟨s⟩ give /ʒ/? Because in this context, ⟨s⟩ is between vowels and so represents /z/ which then gets palatalized to /ʒ/. The examples I gave are also a good example of a minimal pair in English between /dʒ/ and /ʒ/.

Trochaic palatalization of ⟨d⟩ and ⟨x⟩ is in fact so rare than when it does happen, as in the example words, the ⟨i⟩ changes to a ⟨j⟩ to really emphasize the palatalization. So yes, ⟨dj⟩ is /dʒ/ and ⟨xj⟩ is /kʃ/.

Long U Palatalization

The other main source of palatalization comes from the pseudo-diphthong /ju/, variously written as «ú, ue, eu, ew». It's not really technically a diphthong but it sure behaves like one (due to the fact that it is the simplification of a few Middle English diphthongs.) After most consonants, the C and the /j/ are just pronounced one after the other, e.g. «mút» [mute] /mjut/ or «hue» /hju/.

After some consonants, the yod (/j/) is always dropped. This includes the palatal /tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, j/ and the liquids /r, l/. For example, the yod is not there in the words «ćew, júce, ćhút, yew, threw, blue» [chew, juice, chute, yew, threw, blue] /tʃu, dʒus, ʃut, ju, θru, blu/.

For the letters ⟨t, d, s⟩ (or more precisely, the consonants /t, d, s/) however, things get a little messy. Depending on dialect and word, the yod can either remain, be dropped, or coalesce. In the first case, the two consonants are pronounced one after the other no problems. In the second, the /j/ disappears entirely, like in "sue."

And finally, in the third case, the consonant cluster palatalizes into a new sound. This can be seen in the following table. A note: the suffixes «-túr» [-ture] and «-súr» [-sure] are (nearly) always palatalized. Other than that, it varies so much between dialects and speakers that it would be of no use to specify the workings here.

I should mention that if the yod is dropped when used with one of the following, «ú» is written as «ù», e.g., «sùt» [suit]. Both are permissible after «r, l».

I should also mention briefly, as this is not the vowels section, that the quality of «ú» is more important than its length, despite the aigu.

[jprogr]

Quick Mini overview

Mini is a constructed language created by S.C. Gruget. It has 1000 words and a simple but useful grammar. Mini’s sentences are structured in the subject, verb, object manner:

mi i manja a poma - I eat an apple.

Given that words can function like any other words (that is, a verb also works as noun, for example), Mini uses particles to mark the role of a word in a sentence:

i: introduces the verb.

a: introduces direct object & noun complement.

e: introduces adjective complement.

So:

mi i manja a manja - I eat food.

tu e rapi - You are fast.

It uses the letters a, b, d, e, f, g, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v. Pronunciation of consonants is the same as in English, vowels sound a bit more like in Spanish. Stress of a word always falls on the second to last syllable.

“a” as in map.

“e” as in level.

“i” as in meet.

“o” as in more.

“u” as in balloon.

“g” as gift.

Tense and verb aspect is unspecified, but if needed it is built in combination with the i particle and another word:

mi i de manja a oranje - I ate an orange.

mi i manja a oranje - I eat an orange.

mi i go manja a oranje - I will eat an orange.

mi i en manja a oranje - I am eating an orange.

mi i ave manja a oranje - I have eaten an orange.

mi i de ave manja a oranje - I had eaten an orange.

mi i go ave manja a oranje - I will have eaten an orange.

i manja a oranje! - Eat an orange!

go-i manja a oranje - To eat an orange.

mi i da manja a oranje - I would eat an orange.

mi i pasa manja a oranje - I used to eat oranges.

mi i debe manja a oranje - I should eat an orange.

en-i manja a oranje e bon - Eating oranges is good.

Di oranje e de-i manja de mi - This is orange is eaten by me.

For negation precede the word no to that which you need negated:

mi i de no manja a da oranje - I did not eat that orange.

For an adjective precede a noun with a word. For an adverb follow a verb with o and a word:

mi i manja o rapi a oranje poma - I eat quickly an orange apple (the apple has the colour orange).

Possessives are just pronouns and subjects used as adjectives:

tu i manja a mi poma - You eat my apple.

The conjunctions are an, u:

mi i manja a poma an oranje - I eat an apple and an orange.

mi i go manja a poma u oranje - I will eat an apple or an orange.

Dependent and subordinating clauses also have their own words to mark their role:

mi i pensa ke tu i debe manja a poma - I think that you should eat apples.

mi i manja a poma ka mi i kan - I eat apples because I can.

mi i manja a poma vile tu i manja a oranje - I eat an apple while you eat oranges.

Tamen mi i manja poma, mi i no favo a si - Although I eat apples, I don’t like them.

Simple yes or no questions just add a ?:

tu i manja a oranje? - Do you eat oranges?

Open questions use ke in a variety of ways:

tu i manja a ke? - What do you eat?

ke man i manja a oranje - Who eats oranges?

tu i manja e ke loke? - Where are you eating?

si i manja en ke tempo? - When is he eating?

tu i manja e ke rason? - Why do you eat?

mi i debe manja a ke mui? - How much should I eat?

si i manja e ke moda? - How does she eat?

Numbers work as adjectives and are composed from left to right:

nulo - 0.

uno - 1.

duo - 2.

san - 3.

fo - 4.

penta - 5.

sita - 6

seven - 7.

ba - 8.

nin - 9.

ten - 10.

ten nin poma - 19 apples.

sento - 100.

kilo - 1,000.

duo-ten-san-ranko - 23rd.

You can create new words by composing them:

di-dia - today.

dimenti-neso - forgiveness.

duo-ranko-go-fini - Second to last.

[loquaciousnesssesquipedalian]

Transliterations of Chinese languages

While the most widely spoken Chinese language is “Mandarin”, that is simply one of several Altaic languages with a relatively similar structure, vowels, and consonants. They may be translated in two ways depending on the era to put it simply.

The old way would be based on Mongolian, considering the Mongolian alphabetic script was used alongside the regular and familiar semanto-phonetic character system in the Middle Ages. The Manchu alphabet, the literal Chinese alphabet in question, would with “Mandarin” transliterate as follows:

Consonants: Any deviation from expectations shall be mentioned

N/n

Ŋ/ŋ: Phonetically ‘ng’, usually a final

K/k: Phonetically ‘kh’

G/g: Phonetically ‘k’

H/h: Could be either hard or soft

B/b: Phonetically ‘p’

P/p: Phonetically ‘ph’

S/s

Ş/ş: “Sh” sound

T/t: Phonetically ‘th’ 

D/d: Phonetically ‘t’

L/l

M/m

Ç/ç: Phonetically ‘tş’ or ‘z̧h’

Z̧/z̧: Phonetically ‘dş’

J/j: “Y” sound

R/r 

F/f

V/v: “W” sound

C/c: Phonetically ‘ts’

Z/z: Phonetically ‘ds’

Ȼ/ȼ: Like Ç/ç but with a sort of r-ish vibe to it, phonetically ‘ƶh’

Ƶ/ƶ: Like Z̧/z̧ but with a sort of r-ish vibe to it

Vowels: There were no tonal diacritics, the semanto-phonetic characters were the tone indicators

A/a: “Ah” sound

E/e: “Uh” or “eh” sound

I/i: “Ee” sound

O/o: “Ow” sound

U/u: “Oo” sound

Y/y: Like I/i but with rounded lips (represented in Manchu as a ‘ioi’ ligature)

Therefore, when Xiangqi (象棋, Chinese Chess) originated, it would have been transcribed as the equivalent to ‘Şiaŋçi’, and this is just for the letters used to transcribe Medieval Guanhua, aka “Mandarin”

Come the modern era, the Bobpomofo semisyllabary was used for phonetic transcriptions of the semanto-phonetic system instead, and the CCP came up with the shitty “Hanyu Pinyin” (not as shitty as the Wade-Giles predecessor, one that used the baffling “hs” among other things, though) out of spite for Taiwan, which still uses Bopomofo, which shall be transliterated as below:

Strictly Initials: These would sound like the above unless otherwise indicated, and Ź/ź to Š/š are written like their Serbo-Croatian equivalents based on the very specific placements of the 1st 3 of the 6

B/b

P/p

M/m

F/f

D/d

T/t

N/n

L/l

G/g

K/k

H/h

Ź/ź: Equivalent to Z̧/z̧, always precedes I/i or Y/y, represented by the CCP jab against Taiwan as “j”

= Ć/ć: Equivalent to Ç/ç, always precedes I/i or Y/y, represented by the CCP jab against Taiwan as “q”

= Ś/ś: Palatal Ş/ş equivalent, always precedes I/i or Y/y , represented by the CCCP jab against Taiwan as “x”

Ž/ž:  Equivalent to Ƶ/ƶ, represented by the CCCP jab against Taiwan as “zh”

Č/č:  Equivalent to Ȼ/ȼ, represented by the CCCP jab against Taiwan as “ch”

Š/š: R-ish Ş/ş equivalent, represented by the CCCP jab against Taiwan as “sh”

R/r

Z/z

C/c

S/s

Finals / Semivowels: Other than I/i, U/u, and Y/y, these are all strictly finals

A/a

O/o

E/e

Ë/ë: Always has an “eh” sound and always occurs in diphthongs and here would not have any further diacritics, those would be attached to the other vowels

Ai

Ei: Represented by the CCP representation without an e- arbitrarily in trigraphs

Au: Represented by the CCP representation as “ao”, even though it does not actually sound like the Japanese ‘ao’ diphthong

Ou

An

(E)n: Has an attached E/e by itself

Aŋ

(E)ŋ: Has an attached E/e by itself

(E)r: (E)r equivalent to the (E)ŋ character

I/i: Equivalent to both the Manchu I/i and J/j, initially phonetically ‘ii’

U/u: Equivalent to both the Manchu U/u and V/v, initially phonetically ‘uu’

Y/y: Like I/i but with rounded lips, represented inconsistently in the CCP jab against Taiwan, initially phonetically ‘yy’

It also has tonal diacritcs, but not the equivalent to a line over a vowel like the CCP would imply.

This results in what was once ‘象Şiaŋ棋çi’ now being ㄒㄧㄤˋㄑㄧˊ (‘Śìàŋćí’)

It’s worth noting that there are other Bopomofo characters, these are the ones used for Guanhùà, aka “Mandarin”.

For my Verden Chronicles setting, I would use a slightly modified version of the Manchu version, which would also have 1:1 Cyrillic, Arabic-script, and ‘Phags-Pa alphabets, and Bopomofo would be irrelevant due to its relatively recent origin.