Writing, Pronounciation, Classification of Vowels and Consonants.: view article

Due to the unstable nature of the speakers' lifestyles, as well as the newness of the language, there is no set or official writing system. Rather, there are several writing systems that have been observed based on what was available to the speakers at the time. The graphemes below are, with a few exceptions, based on the speakers' observed use of the Latin and Extended Latin alphabets over the Internet and other methods of electronic transmission of written text.

For the purposes of analysis, vowels and consonants in the language are separated into two categories each: "soft" and "hard" consonants, and "short", "long", and unclassified diphthong vowels.

"Hard" Consonants
Grapheme	Variant	IPA	"Soft" Counterpart
B	n/a	/b/	n/a
D	n/a	/d/	th (ð)
F	N/A	/f/	n/a
G	n/a	/g/	n/a
H	n/a	/h/	n/a
K	n/a	/k/	n/a
L	n/a	/l/	n/a
M	n/a	/m/	n/a
N	n/a	/n/	Ñ, Ng
P	n/a	/p/	n/a
Q	n/a	/t͡ʃ/	n/a
R	n/a	/r/	n/a
S	n/a	/s/	x
T	n/a	/t/	th (ð), c
V	n/a	/v/	n/a
Z	n/a	/z/	zh (ż)

"Soft" Consonants
Grapheme	Variant	IPA	"Hard" Counterpart
C	Ts (rare)	//	T
Nj	Ñ	/ɲ/	N
Ng	n/a	/ŋ/	N
J	n/a	/j/	deletion of "J"
Th	ð, þ (rare)	/ð/ or /θ/	D or T
Zh	ż (rare)	/ʒ/	Z

"Long" Vowels
Grapheme	Variant	IPA	"Short" Counterpart
A	n/a	/a/	n/a
Ee	É	/e/	E
Ii	Í	/i/	I
O	n/a	/o/	Oh (Ó)
Uu	Ú	/u/	U

"Short" Vowels
Grapheme	Variant	IPA	"Long" Counterpart
E	n/a	/ə/ or /ɛ/	É
I	n/a	/ɪ/	Í
Oh	Ó	/ɔ/	O
U	n/a	/ʌ/	Ú

Diphthong Vowels
Grapheme	Variant	IPA
oy	oi (rare)	/ɔɪ/
y	ai (rare)	/aɪ/

Writing and Spelling Conventions
Generally, words are written in a way that represents their pronunciation, and in a way that uses the least number of letters possible (e is always written "é" over "ee" if possible), and the least amount of complexity ("é" being more complex than "e" ). For this reason, there are cases where the grapheme for a "short" vowel is used to represent its "long" counterpart, specifically, in places where it would be redundant or unnecessary to use the "long" grapheme. Examples:

1. Instances where two vowels are adjacent. All vowels are pronounced in the "long" form when adjacent to another vowel or dipthong. For example, the word for "reality", pronounced: /reɑlɪdɑθ/, is always written realidað, or realidath, and never reealidath or réalidað.

2. Instances where the word is so well-known and widely used that it is not always necessary to specify pronunciation. This is most often the case with pronouns, transition words, and short, single-syllable words and affixes. Examples: The word for "and": i /i/, personal pronouns terminating in a vowel, such as the word for "you": ti /ti/.

3. Cases where the pronunciation varies based on surrounding words or the idiolect of the speaker. This is most often the case in verb forms that terminate in vowels. These forms are always expressed with a "short" or diphthong vowel, but these final vowels are sometimes pronounced as the "long" counterpart. Example: the word for "betray", traic /trɑit͡s/ is written in the third-person-plural preterit form as trylin, but has been pronounced both as /traɪlɪn/ and /traɪlin/, and is meaningfully interchangeable.

4. Cases where the letter "e" comes after a consonant cluster of two or more, and is not located at the end of the word. In these cases, "e" is pronounced /je/. Example: the word for "left" sleva /sl̩jevɑ/, is never written sljeva, as this would be redundant. This is not the case for words that terminate in CCe, as the /je/ sound rarely occurs at the end of words.

Other Alphabets and Spelling Systems

Most of the study of Rift Pidgin uses the Latin or Extended Latin Unicode symbol sets, due to the use of English as a metalanguage, and the fact that most of the recorded written communication by Rift Pidgin speakers utilizes these symbol sets. However, it is also common for speakers to utilize any set of symbols readily available, as limited by the hardware and software of electronic devices. Below are general rules regarding spelling using alternative symbol sets.

1. Any modification of a vowel with a short/long distinction indicates the "long" version of said vowel. In any Latin-based alphabet, the "normal" or base-version of the vowels "e", "u", "o" and "i" are pronounced as /ɛ/ or /ә/, /ʌ/, /o/, and /ɪ/, respectively, barring above exceptions. Any accent, grave, umlaut, or other modification is considered equivalent to the "double" or accented vowel: "ú" and "ü" are the same, "ó", "oh", "ø" "ö" are the same, and so on.
2. Symbol sets that support alternate or modified versions of consonants may be used to represent other letters or groups of letters. The following table represents some possible substitutions.

SOUND	"COMMON" SPELLING	ALTERNATIVES
/a/	A	А
/ja/	JA	Я
/b/	B	Б
/t͡s/	C	Ц
/d/	D	Д
/ə/, /ɛ/	E	Э
/je/	(J)E	Е
/e/	É,EE	(Е)Е*, Ę, Ѐ
/f/	F	Ф
/g/	G	Г
/x/	H	Х
/ɪ/	I	Ы, Y
/ji/	JI	Ї
/i/	Í,II	И
/j/	J	Й/Ь*, Ј
/k/	K	К
/l/	L	Л
/m/	M	М
/n/	N	Н
/ɲ/	Ñ, NJ	НЬ, Ń
/ŋ/	NG	Ŋ
/o/	O	О
/Jo/	JO	Ё
/ɔ/	Ó	ОХ
/p/	P	П
/t͡ʃ/	Q	Ч, Ć
/r/	R	Р
/s/	S	С
/t/	T	Т
/θ/, /ð/	Ð, TH	ТЬ
/ʌ/	U	У
/ju/	JU	Ю
/u/	Ú, UU	УУ
/v/	V	В, W
/ʃ/	X	Ш, Ś
/ɔɪ/	OY	ОЙ
/aɪ/	Y	АЙ
/z/	Z	З
/ʒ/	Ż, ZH	Ж, Ź

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