{"id":52,"date":"2011-05-26T16:43:02","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T21:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/talossan.org\/?page_id=52"},"modified":"2011-05-26T16:43:02","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T21:43:02","slug":"polyphthongs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/?page_id=52","title":{"rendered":"Polyphthongs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>English speakers are very familiar with the fact that two vowels adjacent to one another will often make a single sound, one that is different from the sound that either of the vowels will make if it was alone. For example, the English word &#8220;pout&#8221; is pronounced differently from both &#8220;pot&#8221; and &#8220;put&#8221;, and yet it is a single-syllable word. What is going on in &#8220;pout&#8221; is that the vowel combination <strong>ou <\/strong>creates a single sound. This is called a &#8220;diphthong&#8221; (a two-letter vowel combination that makes a single vowel sound).<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:none;\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.d23magic.com\/\">office 2016 product key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/joyce-group.com\/\">windows 10 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/actonalcohol.org.au\/\">office 2016 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/benakasolutions.in\/\">windows 10 product key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/farinter.com\/\">windows 10 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/nutone.it\/\">windows 7 pro key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.noroil.as\/\">office 2016 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoteldonsimon.com\/\">windows 10 iso<\/a> &nbsp;|<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lustrestudio.com\/\">windows 10 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.camelbackautoglass.com\/\">windows 10 activation key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.silkyleisure.co.uk\/\">windows 10 product key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/400cervantes.ayto-alcaladehenares.es\/\">windows 10 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldwidehomebuyers.net\/\">windows 7 iso<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/bilginhaliyikama.com\/\">office 2016 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/antey-crimea.ru\/\">office 2016 key<\/a> &nbsp;|<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Talossan diphthongs (and polyphthongs, which are combinations of three or more vowels) are thankfully not very difficult to list and to understand. Most of them are simply common-sense. For example, the Talossan diphthong <strong>ei <\/strong>is pronounced exactly as you would think it would be \u2014 as the Talossan <strong>e<\/strong> sound, followed by the Talossan <strong>i <\/strong>sound, run together, just as you hear in the English words &#8220;say&#8221; and &#8220;ray&#8221;. In fact, for that Talossan diphthong, the tendency of the English speaker to add a little <strong>y<\/strong>-sound (like in &#8220;say&#8221; and &#8220;ray&#8221;) is not discouraged in Talossan.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, just the simple rule that you should &#8220;say both vowels together&#8221; covers so much ground that there is not much more to say about the Talossan vowel combinations, except perhaps to see some of them in action.<\/p>\n<p>Examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>piatana <\/em>(= plane [the tool]). The diphthong in this word is pronounced &#8220;yah&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><em>lavadoira <\/em>(= washing machine). The diphthong here is pronounced as in the English word &#8220;toy&#8221; and &#8220;boy&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><em>piolet<\/em> (= ice pick). The diphthong in this word is pronounced &#8220;yo&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><em>viens<\/em> (= one). The diphthong here is pronounced &#8220;yay&#8221; or &#8220;yeh&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><em>vuit<\/em> (= eight). The diphthong here is pronounced like the English word &#8220;we&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><em>Maitzi <\/em>(= Tuesday). The first syllable of this word is pronounced as the English word &#8220;my&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><em>Januar<\/em> (= January). This word contains two diphthongs (<strong>ja<\/strong> and <strong>ua<\/strong>) and so it is two syllables long. The first of these diphthongs is pronounced as English &#8220;yah&#8221; and the second is pronounced as English &#8220;wah&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A couple of vowel combinations are worth specific discussion, though. One of these is the combination <strong>ou<\/strong>, which is <u>not<\/u> pronounced as an English speaker would expect. In Talossan, <strong>ou<\/strong> is not pronounced as in English &#8220;out&#8221; or &#8220;pour&#8221;, but is always pronounced, essentially, with the <strong>o<\/strong> silent. That is, it is simply pronounced just like the Talossan letter <strong>u<\/strong>. For example, the word <em>tambour <\/em>(= drum) rhymes with the English word &#8220;lure&#8221;, and <em>souvenir <\/em>(= souvenir) is pronounced exactly as in English.<\/p>\n<p>Another vowel combination that is worth discussion is the very common Talossan combination <b>eu<\/b>. This combination appears at the end of a great many Talossan words, and is not a sound that is very common in English. The Talossan <strong>eu <\/strong>is pronounced like the English vowel sound from &#8220;lip&#8221; followed by a <strong>w<\/strong>-sound.<\/p>\n<p>Notice, however \u2014 and this is very important \u2014 that the vowel combination <strong>eu <\/strong>is <u>not<\/u> the same sound as the also very-common combination <strong>\u00e9u<\/strong>. The combination <strong>\u00e9u<\/strong> is pronounced in two syllables (as the two vowels sounds in the English phrase &#8220;grey ooze&#8221;), with the first of them stressed.<\/p>\n<p>This difference (between <strong>eu <\/strong>and <strong>\u00e9u<\/strong>) is due, of course, to the stress mark. Stress is discussed in more detail on <a href=\"\/?page_id=147\">another Webpage<\/a>, but for now it is important to know that when you see <strong>\u00e9u<\/strong>, this is not the <strong>eu<\/strong> diphthong. If the <strong>eu <\/strong>diphthong were needing to be stressmarked, it would be marked <strong>e\u00fa <\/strong>(however, no Talossan word actually has this feature; <strong>e\u00fa <\/strong>is never seen in Talossan).<\/p>\n<h2>Parsing Longer Vowel Combinations<\/h2>\n<p>Consider the two example words <em>doua <\/em>(= two) and <em>noua<\/em> (= nine). These words are pronounced &#8220;doo-uh&#8221; and &#8220;noo-uh&#8221;. In these words, we see one vowel combination (<strong>ou<\/strong>) that is followed immediately by another vowel (<strong>a<\/strong>). In this case, the proper parsing of the combination is as (<strong>ou<\/strong>)(<strong>a<\/strong>), instead of as (<strong>o<\/strong>)(<strong>ua<\/strong>) (which would be prounounced &#8220;oh-wah&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Deciding how to properly parse three or more vowels that appear adjacent is not difficult. If you allow common sense to govern, you will almost certainly be right, but if you prefer to follow rules, here is what you need to know. First, remember that the letter <strong>i<\/strong> <u>always<\/u> will group with a vowel that follows it. Second, remember that the letter <strong>u<\/strong>, when in the middle of a set of adjacent vowels, will <u>never<\/u> group with the vowel that follows it. Third, remember that both of these letters (<strong>i<\/strong> and <strong>u<\/strong>) can be followed by diphthongs, and \u2014 as long as those diphthongs do not begin with an <strong>i<\/strong> or a <strong>u<\/strong> \u2014 this creates a &#8220;polyphthong&#8221;, which is a series of three or more vowels that make a single vowel sound.<\/p>\n<p>For example, in <em>c\u00e1mera videoeasca<\/em> (= video camera), the four adjacent vowels in the second word are all pronounced in separate syllables. This is because <strong>eo<\/strong>, <strong>oe<\/strong>, and <strong>ea <\/strong>are all not Talossan diphthongs. As another example, <em>iaurt<\/em> (= yogurt) is a single syllable word, with its vowel combination pronounced as the English &#8220;yow&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>Doubled Vowels<\/h2>\n<p>In English, some vowels are repeated to indicate a specific pronunciation. For example, the English word &#8220;coop&#8221; is pronounced differently from &#8220;cop&#8221;, and &#8220;weed&#8221; is pronounced differently from &#8220;wed&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, in English, is not very common to see a vowel repeated right after itself. Typically this is seen in English only when a prefix is added to a word, such as in &#8220;cooperate&#8221; and &#8220;reentry&#8221; and in these cases, often a hyphen or other mark is added to assist (&#8220;co\u00f6perate&#8221; and &#8220;re-entry&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>In Talossan, doubled-vowels are extremely rare, and a simple rule suffices to describe their pronunciation. That rule is that if the doubled-vowel is <strong>oo<\/strong>, then each of the vowels is pronounced separately (as in English &#8220;cooperate&#8221;). For all other doubled-vowels, the pronunciation is the same as if the vowel were single. For example, the Talossan word <em>fiirt\u00e0 <\/em>(= pride) is a two syllable word with the first syllable pronounced as the English word &#8220;fear&#8221;, while <em>coordinat <\/em>(= coordinate) is a four-syllable word.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"semivowels\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The Letters <strong>j<\/strong> and <strong>w<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In Talossan, the letters <strong>j<\/strong> and <strong>w<\/strong> are considered to be vowels, not consonants. The letter <strong>j<\/strong> is (almost entirely) equivalent to the letter <strong>i<\/strong> and the letter <strong>w<\/strong> is (almost entirely) equivalent to the letter <strong>u<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of reasons for saying &#8220;almost entirely&#8221;. First of all, the letters <strong>j<\/strong> and <strong>w<\/strong> are never seen except in diphthongs. That is, you will never see or use either of <strong>j<\/strong> or <strong>w<\/strong> unless it is adjacent to a vowel, and forming a diphthong with it. This seems like common sense, especially to someone used to spelling English words. For example, the Talossan word <em>virt <\/em>(= green) would never be spelled <em>vjrt<\/em>, and you never see the letter <strong>w<\/strong> in English unless it is next to a vowel.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, the letter <strong>j<\/strong> also differs from the letter <strong>i<\/strong> in one other respect. The letter <strong>c<\/strong> is always pronounced as the English letter <strong>k<\/strong> except when it is followed by an <strong>e<\/strong> or an <strong>i<\/strong> \u2014 in those cases, it is pronounced like the English &#8220;ch&#8221; as in &#8220;chair&#8221;. For example, the third syllable of the Talossan word <em>felicit\u00e0 <\/em>(= happiness) is pronounced like the English word &#8220;cheat&#8221;, and in the word <em>cervie\u00fea <\/em>(= beer), the initial syllable is similar to English &#8220;chair&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Although <strong>j<\/strong> is identical to <strong>i<\/strong> in other respects, it does not affect the pronunciation of a preceding letter <strong>c<\/strong> in this way (the way an <strong>i<\/strong> does). For example, the <strong>c <\/strong>in the word <em>Slovacja <\/em>(= Slovakia) is pronounced just as in the English equivalent.<\/p>\n<p>The letter <strong>w<\/strong> differs from <strong>u<\/strong> in that while <strong>u<\/strong> (when in the middle of a multi-vowel combination) does not combine with a vowel that follows it, the letter <strong>w<\/strong> <u>does<\/u>. This behavior of <strong>u<\/strong> and <strong>w<\/strong> is actually very common-sensical to the English speaker. For example, in the word <em>Man\u00e1weg <\/em>(= the Milwaukee River), the vowel chain is parsed (<strong>\u00e1<\/strong>)(<strong>ue<\/strong>) (pronounced &#8220;AH-weh&#8221;) and not as (<strong>\u00e1u<\/strong>)(<strong>e<\/strong>) (pronounced &#8220;OW-eh&#8221;). In pronunciation, this often makes little difference.<\/p>\n<p>The letter <strong>w<\/strong> is quite rare in Talossan; it is only used in a few dozen words. The letter <strong>j<\/strong> is used in about 180 words, most of them words in which the <strong>j<\/strong> follows a <strong>c<\/strong> to preserve the hard pronunciation of the <strong>c<\/strong> in front of the Talossan <strong>i<\/strong> sound.<\/p>\n<p>It is important for the English speaker to remember that the Talossan letter <strong>j<\/strong> <u>never<\/u> actually sounds like the English letter <strong>j<\/strong> (as in &#8220;judge&#8221; or &#8220;jack&#8221;). Talossan <b>j<\/b> always sounds like the letter <b>i<\/b>, and typically this means that it manifests itself as the English sound made by the letter <strong>y<\/strong> in a word like &#8220;yellow&#8221;. For example, the word <em>Julia <\/em>(= July) begins with a syllable pronounced like English &#8220;yule&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"\/?page_id=142\"><input class=\"inputSubmit\" type=\"button\" value=\"Next: Pronouncing Talossan Consonants...\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>English speakers are very familiar with the fact that two vowels adjacent to one another will often make a single sound, one that is different from the sound that either of the vowels will make if it was alone. For example, the English word &#8220;pout&#8221; is pronounced differently from both &#8220;pot&#8221; and &#8220;put&#8221;, and yet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":48,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talossan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}