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Kench sounds/spelling, was: Kench declensions

From:Vasiliy Chernov <bc_@...>
Date:Friday, June 9, 2000, 17:37
On Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:49:25 +0200, Christophe Grandsire
<Christophe.Grandsire@...> wrote:

>Can you give a hint of the pronunciation?
Yes, indeed. And they'll apply to the rest of Para-British. The phonology (and orthoepy) is basically English, idealized a bit. I. e. it is a combination of features that probably don't occur together in any particular accent. To use English examples: <r> is pronounced in all positions, including cases like _there aRe_ and _suRprise_. <wh> differs from <w> and is never equal to <h>. _hurry_, _berry_, _carry_, _mirror_, _furry_, _caring_ have different stressed vowels. _For_ is not homonymous with _fore_. The unstressed vowel in _houses_ is [I] rather than [@]. However, all main accents of English are considered 'correct' on the less formal level. Indeed, I found the English spelling rules insufficiently 'conlangish'. A few disambiguating conventions, thorn, and some diacritics were added. (No, it wasn't the recent discussions of spelling reform that inspired me...) ;)
>I suppose the thorn stands for >/T/ (do you have edh for /D/? or only thorn for both?),
No. 'Thorn' is [D], and <th> is always [T]. Edh is not used. Kench evolved from a dialect that had all word-initial spirants voiced in the 'Middle English' stage.
>and <e> in an >ending stands for /@/ (by comparison with other Germanic langs),
Word-final <e> is silent (as in English, but more uniformly so).
>but are >the diphtongs the same as English?
Yes, mostly. But <ow> is always as in _show_, words like _how_, _now_ would be spelled with <ouw>; <ei> is as in British (not American) _either_ (the vowel in _eye_); <aa> is the stressed vowel in _father_; <ea> is always as in _steal_, and <ear> always as in _clear_; <ough> always sounds as in _drought_ (other readings are denoted <augh>, <uff>, etc., since <gh> is always silent by itself and doesn't alter the vowels, except for lengthening them); <oo> is always long. A few remarks about diacritics (some of them occur in the Paternoster). Grave means 'short despite open stressed syllable', acute - 'long despite closed or unstressed syllable'. Diaeresis in <ü> denotes the sound in _put_; with other vowels it overrides consonant context (in combinations like <wa>, <all>, etc.) and has some other usages.
>and the <h> in <zhe> and <longhen>, >what >does it stand for?
<zh> is [Z]; <ngh> was intended to denote non-final [N] (as opposed to <ng> or <ngu> denoting <Ng>). Now I doubt if the spelling _longher_ was correct (it seems that it should have been _longuer_, but _longhen_ is perfectly OK). Indeed, I haven't covered all topics...
>>6) Some pronouns: >> >> ‘I’ ‘thou’ ‘he’ ‘it’ ‘she’ ‘we’ ‘you’ ‘they’ ‘this’ >> >>Nom. idge þouw hee hit hy wee yee hise þiss >>Gen. mine þine hees hits har ouwer yewer hir þisses >>Dat. meem þeem heem hittom har ouzom yewm him þissom >>Ac.1 mee þee heen hits hay ouz yew hir þisses >>Ac.2 mee þee heen hit hay ouz yew hise þiss >> > >Wow! Could you give a hint for their pronunciation?
IdZ Dau hi: hIt haI wi: ji: haIz DIs maIn DaIn hi:z hIts hAr aU@r ju(:)@r h@:r DIsIz mi:m Di:m hi:m hIt@m hAr aUz@m ju:m hIm DIs@m mi: Di: hi:n hIts heI aUz ju: h@:r DIsIz mi: Di: hi:n hIt heI aUz ju: haIz DIs Basilius