Lesson 1: Orthography and Phonology
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A guide to pronouncing written Varonian
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 28 Feb 2023, 04:52.
[comments] vrnslessonslesson 1
?FYI...
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
¡benvenuṭ a la diġa varonesa!
The phoneme inventory of Varonian is fairly typical of Romance languages. Even here though, the influence from Arabic is noticeable. Varonian features /ʔ/ and /ħ/, originating both from developments of native phones, and adapted from Arabic loanwords. The phoneme /p/ is absent from native vocabulary, having shifted to /f/, filling a gap when the original /f/ shifted to /ħ/ in most environments. The following table shows the phonemes used in the standard dialect, based largely off Marsatian Varonian, the dialect of the capital city.
| consonants | labial | dental | alveolar | palatal | velar | glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||||||
| stop/ affricate | b | t | d | ts | tʃ [tɕ] | ʝ~j | k | g | ʔ | ||
| fricative | f | v | θ | s | ʃ [ɕ] | x | ħ | ||||
| flap | ɾ | ||||||||||
| trill | r | ||||||||||
| approximate | (w) | l | ʎ~ʝ | w | |||||||
| vowels | front | back |
|---|---|---|
| high | i | u |
| mid-close | e | o |
| mid-open | ɛ | ɔ |
| low | a | (ɑ) |
For most day to day purposes,
Varonian is written in the Latin Script. The Varonian Alphabet is comprised of 27 letters, omitting ⟨k⟩, ⟨p⟩, and ⟨w⟩. The spelling is fairly phonemic. The table below serves as a quick pronunciation guide of letters in standard Varonian, with a more in-depth view following.| Letter | A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | Ġ ġ | H h | Ḥ ḥ | I i | J j | L l | M m | N n | Ñ ñ | O o | Q q | R r | S s | T t | Ṭ ṭ | U u | V v | X x | Y y | Z z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | a | ba | caf | da | é | fa | gaf | ança | ajja | ḥa | i | jot | la | mín | nún | nuñe | o | cu | arra | sín | ta | ṭa | u | va | xín | ya | ceta |
| Phoneme | /a/, (/ɑ/) | /b/ | /k/, /s~θ/¹ ² | /d/ | /e/, /ɛ/ | /f/ | /g/, /x/¹ | /ʔ/ | /∅/ | /ħ/ | /i/, /i̯/ | /x/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /o/, /ɔ/ | /k/ | /r/, /ɾ/ | /s/ | /t/ | /θ/ | /u/, /u̯/ | /v/ | /ʃ/ | /j/ | /ts/ |
^1 before ⟨e, i, y⟩
^2 realized as [θ] in
Iberian Varonian, [s] elsewhere✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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