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Vowels
Minhyan has just five vowels, each written by a single letter.
a - as in 'father'
e - as in 'pet'
i - as in 'pizza'
o - as in 'Poe' or 'poet'
u - as in 'tutu'
The five diphthongs are:
ai - as in 'aisle'
au - as in 'cow'
ei - as 'bay'
oi - as in 'boy'
ui - as /ooy/ in 'too young'.
Consonants
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Voiceless
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Voiced
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Stops
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p - as in 'pot'
t - as in 'tot'
c /k/ - as in 'cot'
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b - as in 'bought'
d - as in 'dot'
g - as in 'got'
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Fricatives
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ff /f/ - as in 'fought'
th /th/ - as in 'bath'
ss /s/ - as in 'sought'
j /sh/ - as in 'shot'
ch /x/ - as in 'loch'
h /h/* - as in 'hot'
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f /v/ - as in 'vote'
dd /dh/ - as in 'them'
s /z/ - as in 'zit'
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Liquids
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l - as in 'lap'
r - as in 'rap'
ll (aspirated)
rr (aspirated)
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Nasals
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m - as in 'map'
n - as in 'nap'
mm (aspirated)
nn (aspirated)
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Approximants
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w /w/* - as in 'wing'
y /j/* - as in 'young'
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*May not end a syllable.
Consonant clusters may begin and end syllables.
Guidelines For English Speakers
As an experienced English speaker, you will need to get use to the following:
 The letter 'c' by itself is always pronounced /k/. In English, 'c' has several different sounds associated with it, the most common of which is /k/ as in 'cat' and the next most common is /s/ as in 'city' or 'cent'. In Latin (and we are using the Latin alphabet), 'c' was originally always pronounced /k/, but over time came to be pronounced /s/ in front of /i/ or /e/; English borrowed this pronounciation when it borrowed Latin vocabulary. The letter pair 'ch' is never pronounced as in 'church' but is always similar in pronunciation to German /ch/ and can be pronounced as the final consonant in the Scottish pronounciation of 'loch'.
As with the spelling of Welsh, 'ff' is pronounced /f/, and 'f' alone is pronounced /v/ (this sound only occurs at the end of a syllable).
Also as with Welsh, 'dd' is pronounced /dh/ (English uses 'th' for two separate sounds) as in 'them'; when spelled 'th' in Minhyan this is always pronounced unvoiced.
The letter pair 'ss' is pronounced /s/, and 's' alone is pronounced /z/ (this sound only occurs at the end of a syllable).
The letter 'j' is always pronounced /sh/. This is odd, certainly, but Latin lacked the /sh/ sound altogether.
The letter 'r' is actually a trilled /r/ as in Spanish and Russian. If you pronounce it as in English, though, Minhyan speakers are not likely to be bothered.
The aspirated liquids and nasals are pronounced with a puff of air after the consonant. English speakers can safely ignore the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants or can pronounce the consonants long instead (extending the sound).
Every consonant is pronounced, so 'lamb' is pronounced /lamb/ not (as in English) /lam/.
Accent
The Minhyan accent system is etymological, with the morphology of the word determining the placement of the primary accent.
The final syllable of an unmodified root word receives the accent:
riye /ree-YEH/ [< *rei-i.] n. Peace.
esspalas /ess-pah-LAHZ/ [< *ispalas.] n. Starling.
For roots ending with vowels, the final syllable of the root receives the primary accent, even when affixes have been appended.
riyema /ree-YEH-ma/ [< riye, "peace" & -ma-, "loving".] adj. Peace-loving.
For roots ending with consonants, the onset and nucleus of the final syllable of the root receives the primary accent when infixes have been inserted.
esspalales /ess-pah-LAH-lehz/ [< esspalas, "starling" & -le-, "offspring".] n. Starling chick.
In compound words, the first word's primary accent becomes the secondary accent of the combined word.
Proto-Minhyan Pronounciation
Little is known about the ancient ancestral language of Minhyan, but the following observations can be made about how Minhyan evolved from its proto-language:
Unvoiced stops evolved into voiced stops after vowels.
Unvoiced front fricatives evolved into voiced fricatives after vowels.
The aspirated /l/ evolved from a lateral voiceless alveolar fricative as part of a regularization of the aspirated liquids and nasals.
The front vowels shifted.
© 2004 Jeffrey Henning. All rights reserved.
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