From 'Snaekk and Skryf Amerysk' by Paal Filssunu
Letters in the Amerysk language are not
put in alphabetical order as in most European tongues, but are arranged in the pattern
of the older Northern Futhark.
There are officially 26 letters in this
futhark, also known as 'staves' (staefas). There are some forms in the 'runic'
form of stave writing which combine similar sounds and do not stand out as the Roman
alphabet's series of clustered phonetics.
VOWELS
Amerysk uses eight
main vowels: A, E, I, O, U, Y, AE, Ø
These vowels possess single phonetic
pronunciations. In the course of speaking some natural vowel lengthenings occur.
These are either shown in the ( )'s for proper pronunciation, or they use lengthened
written vowel forms: A becomes AA, E becomes EI, EY or Y
and so forth.
PRONUNCIATION:
A is pronounced as in Tall
(ah) O is pronounced as in Off, Hot
(aw)
E is pronounced as in Set (eh)
U is pronounced as OO in Book (uh)
I is pronounced
as in It, Stick (ih) Y is pronounced
as EE in Green (ee)
AE is pronouced as A in Sack,
Laugh Ø is pronounced as EW--- similar
to German ö and Danish ø
EXAMPLES:
Stagga (stahgg-ah)
stag Thurk (thuhrk) through
Swefan
(swehf-ahn) to sleep Ys (eess)
ice
Swift (swihft) fast, swift
Wraeth (rath) wrath
Worm (wawrm) reptile, serpent
Bø (bew) village, town
The
basic sounds of the vowels don't change, unlike some languages which assign up to
four different sounds to a letter, or stave.
LENGTHENED VOWELS
AA
(aw) as used in Waald (forest) AW
(ahw) as used in Blaw! (Blow!)
AAW (aw) as used in Laaw
(low) UW (ooh) as used in Bluw
(blue)
EI, EY (ay) as used in Ey (island)
AEW (ae+oo) as used in Maew (seagull)
and personal name Sweyn
IW (yew) as used in Tiw (Tyr)
ØW (ew) as used in Fløwan (to flow)
CONSONANTS:
Amerysk uses
sixteen consonants--- also, there are several consonants sounds produced by clustering.
All consonants will be shown in the examples below:
MAIN CONSONANTS:
As used in the English alphabet order---
B, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R,
S, T, W, and X
Note: C, Q, V, and Z are not used as standard letters unless
they are needed in the spelling of names, or words fron languages using these letters
(Caledon, Quinn, Viking, Zeus and so forth.)
Of these above mentioned
consonants, the following are pronounced very much as in English, and require no
special learning:
B, D, F, H, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, W, and X
G is
given two pronunciations according to its place in a word:
as G in the word gød (gewd) 'good', used initially, it is pronounced
hard--- but when used in the middle or at the end of a word--- such
as fugl (foo-khil) 'bird' or graeg (grakh) 'gray'. The G is
spoken as a German 'CH' sound (KH).
GG is always pronounced
hard as in Egg.
J is always pronounced as Y: Ja (yah) 'yes'.
NG
is always pronounced as 'ING' in wing--- never pronounce it like
the English NG in 'FING-GER' (finger).
TH is pronounced two ways---
as the hard [voiced] TH in THIS and as the soft [unvoiced] TH in
THIN. TH requires memorization, and throughout this series
for pronunciation purposes,
TH= hard sound TH=soft sound
KJ/TJ
are normally pronounced as CH in CHEERS
SJ/SKJ are pronouced
as SH
EXAMPLES:
Baer (behr) bear
Regn (rayn) rain
Bjørn (byewrn)
warrior Rhyn (reen) Rhine river
Dael
(dal) valley Saell
(sal) hall, assembly
Fisk (fisk) fish
Skort (skort) short
Hus (huss)
house Taelling (tall-ing)
number
Hjørt (hyewrt) heart
Thjød (thyewd) nation
Hwael (hwal) whale
Wy (wee) we
Jaer (yar) year
Galan (gal-ahn)
to sing
Kweth (kweth) saying
Kjaart (tchawrt) map
Log (lawkh) law
Dwerg (dwerkh) dwarf
Ljud
(lyuhd) song Hryme
(hreem-eh) rhyme
Maer (mehr) more
Hrym (hreem) frost-rime
Null (nuhl)
nil (0)
Paeth (path) road
NOTE: there are exceptions in pronunciation
to the consonant KJ-
When used in the verb maakjan (to make),
maak and jan are spoken separately (mahk-yahn). This also applies
to words that use SKJ and SJ.
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