Thrichian: Difference between revisions

1. Accented vowels are used to distinguish between diphthongs and switch vowels. They indicate stress as well as length. All vowels except for /ɞ, ʊ, ɪ, ɜ/ can be long or geminal when their orthographic representation is an accented vowel in a syllable which would already receive stress in the word. For example, ''páhtta'' has a long /ˈpaːʰtːa/ while ''pahttá'' does not /pahˈtːa/. Some nouns when pluralized will gain stress for this reason: ''alíg'' /aˈlig/ while ''alígas'' /aˈliːgaʃ/. Though the spelling doesn‘t change, lengthening occurs because in the second word, the extra syllable means the stress will fall on the penultimate li.  

2. Accented vowels are counted as separate because they distinguish words like icastan (unrelenting) and icastán (disrespectful) or a critical distinction heloban (beautiful) and héloban (disastrous). The latter of these examples is a difference in pronunciation indicated, not in stress, as the pattern stays the same but the vowel is raised.  

3. Switch vowels e, a are used to change the pronunciation of a consonant from slender to broad and vice versa.  

4. Every vowel has an innate triggering quality, meaning that they trigger a preceding vowel to be pronounced either slender or broad. Vowels i, e, í, é, ë trigger slender pronunciations, while a, á, o, ó, u, ú, ė trigger broad.

5. Letter ė is only pronounced between three or more consonants which are difficult to pronounce together, it is mostly reduced to silent or a very short schwa /ɜ/

6. Diphthongs and triphthongs are always smooth and syllabic.

7. /a/ and /ɒ/ become /aʊ̆/ and /ɒʊ̆/ before /v/ or /f/ + consonant such as in davcig /ˈd̥aʊ̆v̥t͡siɣ/

8. /iɜ/ in stressed position becomes a lengthened vowel /ɪ:/ for some speakers, especially in the word Thriehčču.