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Phonology
The Heroes' Tongue is very difficult for most humans to master, constructed as it is of guttural and aspirated consonants. However, most Kzinti will be able to understand you, even if you do not aspirate their consonants or pronounce them gutturally. They will just expect such inferior vocalization from "hairless apes."
the sound system of the Heroes' Tongue works as follows:
.........labial...dental...alv-pal...palatal...velar
stops.......p........t........................c.........k
...............b........d...................................g
affricates......................................j
fricatives..f..........s............s'....................h
................v........z.............z'
nasals......m........n..................................ng
laterals..................l............r
semivowels..w...............................y
Consonants
B - like English B as in Bury, but with more aspiration behind it
C - like English CH as in Church, but with more aspiration behind it
D - like English D as in Data, but more guttural
F - like English F as in Father, but more guttural
G - like English G as in Gore, but more guttural
H - like English H as in Horror, but with more aspiration
J - like English J as in Jet, but more guttural
K - like English K as in Kill, but with more aspiration
L - like English L as in Liver, but with more aspiration
M - like English M as in Motor, but more guttural
N - like English N as in Nerve, but with more aspiration
P - like English P as in Purr, but more guttural
R - like English R as in Rip, but more guttural
S - like English S as in Sever, but with more aspiration
S' - When S is followed by ' it is pronounced as S above, but more guttural
T - like English T as in Tiger, but with more aspiration
V - like English V as in Victim, but with more aspiration
W - like English W as in War, but more guttural
Y - like English Y as in Yes, but with more aspiration
Z - like English Z
Z' - When Z is followed by ' it is pronounced as Z above, but with more force behind it
' - the apostrophe is used as a glottal stop within some Kzinti words. A glottal stop is a brief shutting off of sound in the back of the throat.
Consonant Clusters
As in many other languages, the Heroes' Tongue makes use of consonant clusters within words. A consonant cluster is any group of more than one consonant within a word. Common consonant clusters in the Heroes' Tongue include gh, gr, hr, hv, kd, kh, kz, mr, ng, nj, pr, rg, sr, th, tk, ts, tz, vr, wl, wr, wt, zh, and zr. Some of these double consonants are Kzinti letters. They are as follows:
GR - like the growling sound a dog makes
HR - like the English word "her" without pronouncing the E
KH - like the English word "kill" but more guttural and with a slight H sound
KS - like English X but without pronouncing the initial Eh sound
KZ - like the last syllable of the English word "because"
NG - like the NG sound in the English word "ring", but without the typical aspiration and guttural sounds of the Heroes' Tongue
NJ - like the NG sound in the word "tangerine"
RG - like the RG sound in the word "bargain"
SR - like English SH but with a slight R sound
TH - like the English TH sound in "thing" but never like the sound in "the"
TK - like the sound in the English word "tack"
TS - like the TS sound in the English word "cuts"
VR - like the sound of the last syllable of the English word "never"
WR - like the sound of the English word "were"
ZH - like the J sound in the English word "ajure"
ZR - like the sound of the last syllable in the word "bazaar"
Vowels
A - as in English Cat
E - as in English Get
I - as in English Machine
O - as in English Bone
U - as in English Gut
Dipthongs
AA - this is identical to the Kzinti A sound, but held twice as long
AE - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the A and E sound of Kzinti vowels together without a pause to approximate the sound
AI - the long A sound as in English Aim
AO - the OU sound as in English Ouch; the O sound as in English How
AU - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the A and U sound of Kzinti vowels together without a pause to approximate the sound
EA - this is a different form of Kzinti A. I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the E and A vowels of Kzinti together to approximate the sound
EE - this is identical to the Kzinti E sound, but held twice as long
EI - this is the same as the Kzinti AI dipthong, except it is a rising tone, like pronounced in the improper English sentence "Aim?"
EO - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the E and O sound of Kzinti vowels together without pause to approximate the sound
EU - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the E and U sound of Kzinti vowels together without pause to approximate the sound
IA - the closest approximation I can find in English for this Kzinti dipthong is the American Midwestern English word "Yeah" as used in answer yes to a question
II - this is identical to the Kzinti vowel I, except held twice as long
IO - the closest approximation I can find in English for this Kzinti dipthong is the American slang word "Yo!" with a long E placed in front of it. Run Kzinti I and O together for an approximation
IU - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the I and U sound of Kzinti vowels together to approximate the sound
OA - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the O and A sound of Kzinti vowels together to approximate the sound
OE - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the O and E sound of Kzinti vowels together to approximate the sound
OI - this is the same as the French word "Oui"
OO - this is identical to Kzinti O, except held twice as long
OU - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the O and U sound of Kzinti vowels together to approximate the sound
UA - this is identical to the English A sound as in the word "Father"
UI - this is identical to the long sound of the English vowel I
UO - I see no corresponding sound in English. Run the U and O sound of Kzinti vowels together to approximate the sound
UU - this is identical to the Kzinti U sound, except held twice as long.
While it may seem to human ears that some of these dipthong sounds are identical to others except for spelling, it must be remembered that Kzinti hearing is much more acute than that of humans, and they DO differentiate these dipthong sounds. I don't think arguing with a Kzin over this grammatical redundancy would be a wise course of action unless you're armed to the teeth.
Tripthongs
There are no known tripthongs in the Heroes' Tongue. Rather, Kzinti prefer to pronounce the third vowel in a row as if it were completely separate from the two preceding vowels.
Accent
The Kzints'utng word-accent is one of intensity (heaviness), as in English rather than pitch as in such languages as Japanese (which pronounce certain vowels in a word on a higher musical pitch (or musical note)).
The Alphabet
Kzints'utng was originally claw scratches on trees native to the Kzinti Homeworld. When civilization began to appear, writing on clay tablets persisted for several thousand years. Following this period, the bark of certain trees was formed into paper and was used for a thousand years before computers were developed, at wich point the letters became less ornate. Royal Kzints'utng uses a form of writing halfway between the less ornate computer letters and those letters formerly used in writing on paper. Modern Kzints'utng is a form used mainly on computers and is therefore less complex for the sake of precision. Royal Kzints'utng is used by the Patriarchy, and was used formerly in naming ships until after the four Man-Kzin Wars. When the Kzinti fleets were secretly constructed following this period, the more common Modern Kzints'utng form was used in names painted on the hulls of Kzinti spacecraft.
Word Spelling
A note on word spelling: Most often the English transliteration of Kzinti words will show C as CH, and C is always pronounced as the CH sound in Church, but occasionally the transliteration will show C alone without a following H. In such words the C is still pronounced as CH.
below are the Royal Kzints'utng alphabet, followed by the Modern Kzints'utng alphabet. The Font files for these alphabets can be found on the Kzinti Index page, along with the Font ReadMe.txt.
