The language itself amongst Threadwielders is a selection of syllables, meaning that in combination with its audio-independent nature, technically the alphabet consists of syllabic ideograms. Since that would be a pain to note down, though, we'll use the quasi-latin transcription on this page and follow the commonplace (draconic, ancient Nayabaru, human-compatible) pronunciations.
Pronunciation
Digraphs:
ai is usually not a digraph (exceptions will be noted as a͡i in dictionary), but if it is, it's a tight sequence of a and i as in German.
ei is also not usually a digraph (exceptions will be noted as e͡i in dictionary), but if it is, it's a tight sequence of e and i as in German.
In general, for a duplicated vowel, such as aa or uu, each vowel should be pronounced as its own syllable; for example, daarav has three syllables, and is pronounced 'da-a-rav', rather than 'daa-rav'.
-h with - a consonant, as long as - is not s or t, serving the same sound as -, plus a modifier for the vowel that follows. Example: 'kha' is pronounced akin to 'kah'; 'rha' is pronounced akin to 'rah'; …
ks, pronounced as x would be in English.
-
sz, serving as the same sound as 'z', plus a modifier for the vowel that follows; 'sza' is pronounced akin to 'zah').
th for
/θ/ as in English (
@todo not sure if also /ð/… think not).
Redundancies (i.e. letters or digraphs that exist for aesthetic purposes only):
c at the start of words is synonymous with s.
c not at the start of words is synonymous with k.
the digraph k͡w is synonymous with q.
the digraph p͡h is synonymous with f.
the digraph z͡h is synonymous with sz.
in the digraph q͡u, the u is silent (the letters as a true sequence would either be written as quu or (predominantly) q'u).
in some dialects, the digraph e͡e may be pronounced as i.
Assume compatibility with most common English pronunciations unless otherwise noted.
Punctuation
Punctuation varies regionally, but the following punctuation forms (albeit not the symbols; they can and do vary) are inherit to the language design:
.
period | !
exclamation mark | ?
question mark | ‽
interrobang | '
apostrophe | ,
comma |
. denotes the end of a sentence.
! denotes the end of an exclamation.
? denotes the end of an enquiry.
‽ denotes the end of an exclaimed enquiry.
, denotes a short pause, usually at the end of a clause. Regionally, various greater pauses can exist in punctuation, such as “;” or “-” or “…”, but they're not typical.
' denotes the end of a syllable. This is optional when the end of the syllable is otherwise implied. Examples: adreth'a - the apostrophe is necessary to prevent reading the plural form as ad-re-tha, rather than ad-reth-a; contrast with kenda'a, which can be written as kendaa, because aa is not a digraph.