Dalcurian alphabet and pronunciation

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Modern alphabet and pronunciation (with English IPA equivalent)

letter	letter name	pronunciation (with IPA)
a	al	(æ) as in cat
b	bri	(b) as in bat
c	ca	(k) as in cat
d	da	(ɗ) as in day
e	era	(ɛ) as in end
f	fe	(f) as in fall
g	géø	(g) see special pronounciation
h	hal	(h) as in hat
i	il	(ɪ) as in kill
j	öja	(ʒ) like the s in television
l	lá	(l) as in like
m	ma	(m) as in man
n	na	(n) as in not
o	ol	(ɒ) as in top
p	pä	(p) as in pat
q	qöc	(k) as in kick
qu	q'qöa	as in quick
r	ræ	(ɹ) see special pronunciation
s	siri	(s) as in sit
t	tø	(t) as in take
v	vála	(v) as in van
x	séca	(ks) as in wax
y	yenta	(waɪ) as in the whole word why
z	tsi	(ts) as in sets (like the German z)

special vowels and characters

letter	letter name	pronunciation
ä	äli	(eɪ) as in 'ey' in they (see also special pronunciation)
á	áli	(a:) long as in bar
é	éga	(i:) long as in feel
ö	öli	(u) long as in cool
ø	ø	like the och in the German doch
æ	æ	(aɪ) as in the 'i' in find
Þ	eÞ	(ɵ-voiceless dental fricative) th as in bath but not in the
ß	alv	(v) as in have; replaces v after a vowel but only formal literacy

Special pronunciations

• g is a voiced velar plosive pronounced hard at the beginning and middle of a word, like g in get/forget but becomes soft at the end of a word, like g in the German word swanzig.

• r is an alveolar trill. Its place of articulation is alveolar which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (or just behind the top teeth). It can be likened to the way in which a Scottish person with a strong accent would say great, straight, road, etc.

• ä is pronounced like the ey in they. However, at the end of a word, or where it is separated by a high apostrophe, it is pronounced ey-ya (ipa: eɪ-j-æ).

• q Unvoiced velar plosive. Is only found at the beginning of a word, including words that are separated by a high apostrophe, as in Dal’qörian or qatáj-cat, and is always pronounced like an English k.

• c Unvoiced velar plosive. Only appears in the middle or end of a word such as qurvecsár-to annoy and dörac-through, and is sounded like an English k.

• x is used only to denote a negative word and attaches to the end of a verb. (see verbs and negatives)

• z is only used in loan words, and pronounced like the ts in sets, much like the German 'z.

• sh This does not exist in Dalcurian, however, after the vowel ö you may hear the s as a 'voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant' [ʃ], although it's exact sound can only be described as being a 'half voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant' and cannot be identified in IPA.

• eÞ. As stated in the pronunciation chart, this is represented in IPA with θ and is an Unvoiced dental fricative like the th in thin and bath. Although to English ears, there may appear to be only a small difference between the voiced th as in the and then, Dalcurians do not know this sound, and a characteristic of the Dalcurian English accent is a heavily unvoiced th.

Lenition/mutation (spoken only)

Þ

When in word final position and the following word begins with the dentals d, t and itself, Þ undergoes complete mutation, eg:

• DanöÞ vélø It's cold, but
  • Danö[-] disiri vélø, It's very cold
• máriÞ eladöra with you all but
  • mári[-] tiÞöra with it
• tiÞ nöacr... it can... but
  • ti[-] Þöldr... it should...

Note on Þ: There is an unhappy agreement when a word ends in Þ and the following word begins with Þ. In both cases, the first Þ is muted and the second lenites to /t/.

r

When in word final position and the following word begins with the spirants: s and f; lenites to /t/:

• máriÞ mæöra but
  • mári[t] siöra
• ti[t] flästa it's new (for obvious reasons, the English find this expression quite amusing, much to the bemusement of the Dalcurians)!

The rhoticisity of the language can also force mutation of the r in many word combinations. When r is in medial or last syllable position, and the following word begins with r the first is normally muted, for example:

• Érenöra Þöldr becomes
  • Érenö-a Þöldr (some dialects do the opposite and mute the 1st r)
• máriÞ reÞæsámn becomes
  • má-iÞ reÞæsámn

As well as being a 'rhotic' lanuage, Dalcurian is also PHONETIC; its spoken pretty much as it is written. Once you have learned to pronounce the letters, speaking and reading Dalcurian should be relatively easy. For example, Dal'qörian is pronounced dal-koo-ree-yan. Here are a few more examples, in syllabic form, to give you a flavour of how words sound:

Dalcurian	Meaning	Phonetic pronunciation
strömi	hot	stroo-mi
binä	I/Iam	bin-ey-a
stæcnáÞrädn	thankless	sty-kun-arth-rey-dun
ädiáda	yesterday	ey-dee-ar-da
yenø	immense	why-en-och
ødérämös	steadiness	och-dee-rey-mous
qsendaréø	scenario	ku-send-a-ree-och
embáragadöraj	puppy	em-bar-a-gad-oo-raj
siagentöj	aunty	see-a-gent-ooj

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Axilliary spelling

Written Dalcurian is highly 'diacritical'. However, and mainly for those outside of Dalcuria, it is not always possible to write in this way, depending on one's PC and operating system. For this reason, an auxilliary spelling system is in place, which uses no diacritics. This is as follows:

á-ar iáda/iarda

ä-ai binä/binai

æ-ae stæ/stae

é-ee ména/meena

ö-u diö/diu

ø-k vélø/veelok

Þ-th taÞ/tath