Fuergan vowels are pronounced as follows:
a—as in hat
aa—as in nut
e—as in play
i—as in free
o—as in thought
u—as in bird
ei—as in lane
ai—as in light
ie—as in leer
ue—as in west
Imach
The Imach language is very complicated for easy transliteration, as their alphabet contains twenty-two different vowels and forty-three consonants. The subtle distinctions between many of those vowels and consonants are challenging to distinguish for someone who isn’t a native speaker (or a trained linguist), and thus many of them get transliterated the same way—often as single or double l’s or r’s.
The main thing to note is that Imach dialects do not have diphthongs, so each vowel should be pronounced as individual syllables. Two key consonant rules that should be noted:
ch—as in mechanic
ss—as in mission
Tsouljan
Tsouljan pronunciation is fundamentally easy, as it only has six vowel sounds.
a—as in cot
e—as in day
i—as in free
o—as in go
u—as in run
ou—as in boot
The key thing to note is that all vowels in Tsouljan are pronounced “creaky voice” (also referred to as “vocal fry”). Also emphasis is always on the last syllable in any word, unless syllables are separated with a dash, in which case the syllable before the dash is emphasized.
Lyranan
Lyranan and Tsouljan have similar roots, though Lyranan is far more nasal in both vowel and consonant sounds. Lyranan vowels should be nasalized, with the following pronunciation:
a—as in cat
e—as in bed
i—as in lit
o—as in go
u—as in run
y—as in fear
ei—as in wait
ai—as in write
ao—as in house
Note that “y” is transliterated both as vowel and consonant. At the beginning of a word, such as in Yikenj, the “y” is pronounced like in yam. Use of “ng” in Lyranan should be pronounced as in sing, and use of “nj” should be pronounced as in banjo.
As with Tsouljan, emphasis is always on the last syllable in any word, unless syllables are separated with a dash, in which case the syllable before the dash is emphasized.
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An Import of Intrigue Page 37
