Arêndron:
Quick Guide to Pronunciation

The following guide is intended for readers who just want to know how to pronounce Arêndron words or names and are not interested in a detailed phonology. The sounds are thus described in terms of their nearest English equivalents, which are not always perfectly accurate; readers who are interested in more detail should consult the page on Arêndron phonology.

Consonants

Consonants other than those listed below have their normal English values, except for q, which is not used. Note that y is always consonantal (as in yacht) and not a vowel (as in silly).

c

is pronounced as in cute or accuse; a “ky” sound, never a “k” or a “s”. In English, c only has this sound before long “u”, but in Arêndron it has this sound before any vowel.

ch

is pronounced as in church, never as in loch. The same sound can also be written tj.

dh

See th.

dj

is pronounced like the “j” in jam.

gh

See kh.

hj

is a “hy” sound like the beginning of human.

hw

is a “hw” sound, as in the Scottish pronounciation of what.

j

is a French “j”, sounding like the “s” in vision.

kh

and gh are “breathed” versions of k and g respectively. To pronounce them, say a “k” or “g” and breathe through it as you make it. The kh is the same sound as the “ch” in loch or Bach.

ng

is two separate sounds as in finger, not one as in singer. (See ŋ.)

nh

is a Portuguese “nh”, sounding like the “ni” in onion.

ŋ

has the sound of the “ng” in singer.

s

is pronounced as in laser when it falls between two vowels; as in six otherwise.

sh

is pronounced the same as j (that is, like “s” in vision) when it falls between two vowels or at the beginning of the word; as in ship otherwise.

th

is pronounced as in that when it falls between two vowels; as in thing otherwise. The sound of “th” in that when it occurs at the beginning of a word is written dh.

tj

See ch.

x

is pronounced “ts”, as in cats.

Vowels

The short vowels a, e, i, o and u are pronounced as in English pat, pet, pit, pot and put. Note especially that u is never pronounced as in shut.

Long vowels are marked with a circumflex accent or sometimes as a sequence of two vowel letters. Arêndron has the following long vowels and diphthongs:

â

pronounced like the word “air” (British or Australian pronunciation)

aa

as “a” in father

ai

as “i” in bite

au

as “ou” in round

ê

as “ai” in rain

ei

as in seize

eu

as “oa” in boat

ô

as “au” in caught

œ

as “ir” in bird (British or Australian pronunciation)

oi

as in voice

û

as “oo” in food

ui

is pronounced as “oo” and “ee” run together into one syllable. It should take the same time to pronounce as oi; it is not two syllables like the “ui” in ruin.

When the vowels i and u end a word, they are pronounced long (as ei and û) even when this is not explicitly marked. Other word-final vowels are short (and tend to be reduced, see below); note especially that word-final e is never silent.

Vowel reduction

Unstressed a, e and o are often pronounced “reduced”; that is, shortened to a sound like the “a” in about. This is especially noticeable with words ending in “an” or “en”, which are both pronounced like the second syllable of redden.

Stress

Stress in longer words is always on the penultimate (second-last) or antepenultimate (third-last) syllable. The stress can usually be predicted from the following rules:

1. Prefixes are never stressed, so if a three-syllable word begins with a prefix the stress will be on the middle syllable.
2. Suffixes affect the stress in different ways; this must be learnt for each suffix.
3. In compound words joined by the linking vowel “a”, this vowel is never stressed, so if this occurs in the penultimate syllable (as in Atragam), the stress is moved one syllable back.
4. If none of these apply, stress the penultimate syllable.

Two-syllable words usually stress the first syllable, but there are exceptions, particularly the number names daiû, hwarê and ratei, and the plurals of third-declension nouns.

Intonation

This is not the place for a detailed analysis of Arêndron intonation, but it is worth noting that questions in Arêndron do not end with a rise as they do in English.