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In the Shadow of the Dragons
The Dragon Lords
Pronunciation Guide to High Daelan
Vowels
High Daelan has eleven distinct vowels. All vowels in High Daelan are the same length, they differ only in quality. They come in two systems, the tense vowels and the lax vowels. The tense vowels are
· the high front vowel [i], which is spelled ‘ee’ in English
· the mid front vowel [e], which is spelled ‘ay’ in English
· the low front vowel [&], which is short ‘a’ in English, as in ‘ash’
· the back mid vowel [o], which is spelled ‘oa’ in English
· the back high vowel [u], which is spelled ‘oo’ in English
The lax vowels are
- the high front vowel [I], which is short ‘i’ in English, as in ‘it’
- the mid front vowel [E], which is short ‘e’ in English, as in ‘ebb’
- the low central vowel [a], as in English ‘father’
- the mid back vowel [O], which is short ‘o’ in English, as in ‘odd’
- the high back vowel [U], which is short ‘u’ in English, as in ‘put’
- the mid central vowel [@], which can be any short vowel in an unstressed syllable in English, but often is also the ‘a’ at the end of words, as in ‘Lisa’
The schwa, the mid central lax vowel above, only occurs word finally and as an epenthesized vowel to break up consonant clusters. This vowel can also not be stressed.
Because the Latin alphabet has only five vowel letters, as any speaker of English knows, writing eleven vowels with five letters is tricky. Generally speaking, however, when a letter stands by itself, one should assume that the vowel represented is the lax equivalent.
- a represents the low central vowel [a], as in ‘ash’
- e represents the mid front vowel [E], as in ‘ebb’
- i represents the high front vowel [I], as in ‘it’
- o represents the mid back vowel [O], as in ‘odd’
- u represents the high back vowel [U], as in ‘put’
Exceptions to this would be with ‘a’ in particular. At the end of a word it typically represents a schwa, as in English, and often also stands alone as the front low vowel [&], as in ‘ash’. The transcription system is weakest at this point. To clear this up somewhat, somewhat, the low central vowel [a], can also be written as ‘aa’. Single syllable words are always pronounced with the tensed version. Pronounce ‘te’ like ‘tay’.
To achieve the remaining tense vowels, digraphs are usually used.
- ae represents the mid central vowel [e], as in ‘ate’
- ie can represent the high front vowel [i], as in ‘eat’
- oo represents the mid back vowel [o], as in ‘hope’
- uu represents the high back vowel [u], as in ‘hoop’
In addition to these eleven major vowels, there are also a small number of diphthongs. The most common of these are
- ai/ei represents the vowel English speakers usually think of as long ‘i’, as in ‘ice’
- oi as in ‘boy’
- au as in ‘out’
These diphthongs are standard, and may be treated in the morphology as a unit.
The last complication of the vowel system in High Daelan is with respect to sequences of vowels. Unless they are contained in the list above, sequences of vowels are pronounced as distinct syllables. When this occurs, the initial vowel is pronounced like a tense vowel, and the second vowel as the corresponding lax vowel. Thus, the sequence ‘ii’, is pronounced as two syllables, the first vowel like the high front tense vowel [i] and the second one like the high front lax vowel [I]. In English, we might spell this as ‘ee-ill’. The exception to this rule is when the pair of vowels begins with the letter ‘e’, in which case the tense-lax pattern is reverse.
Consonants
Most of the consonants are as they are in English. However, there are some differences and some additional digraphs. The single consonants are
- b the voiced bilabial stop [b] as in ‘bend’
- p the voiceless bilabial stop [p], as in ‘pen’
- m the bilabial nasal [m], as in ‘men’
- d the voiced dental stop [d], as in ‘dime’
- t the voiceless dental stop [t], as in ‘time’
- n the dental nasal [n], as in ‘nine’
- g the voiced velar stop [g], as in ‘guess’
- k the voiceless velar stop [k], as in ‘kiss’
- j the voiced palatal affricate [Ù], as in ‘jest’
- c the voiceless palatal affricate [Í], as in ‘chest’
- z the voiced dental sibilant [z], as in ‘zest’
- s the voiceless dental sibilant [s], as in ‘sister’
- dh the voiced interdental fricative [D], as in ‘then’
- th the voiceless interdental fricative [T], as in ‘thunder’
- v the voiced labiodental fricative [v], as in ‘vex’
- f the voiceless labiodental fricative [f], as in ‘fix’
- zh the voiced palatal sibilant [Z], as in ‘genre’
- sh the voiceless palatal sibilant [S], as in ‘shame’
- gh the voiced velar fricative [G], which does not exist in English any longer, similar to ‘ch’ below
- ch the voiceless velar fricative [x], which does not exist in English any longer, but is like ‘ich’ in German
- h the voiceless glottal fricative [h], as in ‘hen’
- kk the voiceless velar affricate [kx], which doesn’t exist in English
- x represents a complex constant [ks], as in ‘ex’, also at the beginning of a word, and a word to English speakers, ‘xel’ would be pronounced as a single syllable, not as ‘ke-sel’, which is two.
- r the retroflex approximant [R], as in English ‘ring’
- rh the dental trill [r], and in Italian
- l the lateral approximant [l], as in ‘lull’, often velarized as in English
- ll the lateral interdental fricative [L], which does not exist in English, approximately like ‘thl’
- w the bilabial glide [w], as in ‘wish’
- y the palatal glide [j], as in ‘yes’
One important note is that ‘y’ is always a consonant. It never represents an independent vowel. For instance, the word ‘Myria’ should be pronounced as three syllables, as ‘myer-ee-a’, with an inserted schwa between the ‘y’ and the ‘r’ to break up the unpronounceable sequence of consonants. Similarly, ‘h’, except in the cases listed above, represents an independent ‘h’ sound or additional aspiration of the consonant.
Lastly, with respect to stress. Most High Daelan words are emphasized on the last foot. For words with a final consonant, this means the last syllable, or if a final vowel, then the second to last syllable. However, proper nouns received stress on the first syllable.
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Last updated: 2005 August 23