Vowels
The 12 vowels (including semivowels but not gliding vowels) are arranged visually, organized by loud / quiet and big / small:
| loud | quiet | |
|---|---|---|
| 0s | y(h), {y}ie | y, ae |
| 1s | i(h) | i, iy | [y-,-y] |
| 2s | a(h) | a, ia |
| 3B | e(h) | e, ea |
| 4B | u(h), {u}oe | u, ou | [u-,-u] |
| 5B | o(h) | x, io |
- Lists are in order of preference
(h)in place of a consonant, or h for silence{h}required notation around the letter in brackets (yearn -> yiern, wool -> uoel)[h-,-h]refers to the associated semivowels for the listed "gliding vowels" (yeet -> yiyt, swoon -> suoun)iou(long o sound) is rewritten ao, oa
| Romanized Spelling | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| axa | ah + x + a (ah-huh) |
| axah | ah + x + ah (ah-ha) |
| iaxa | a + x + a (uh-huh) |
| iaxah | a + x + ah (a-ha) |
Pronunciation
The example words are unlikely to be dictated the exact same way in IPA due to the vowels in a Zatei accent not exactly matching up with American English. For example, cry and light are notated in IPA the same way in the Cambridge dictionary, but it's important in Zoitei to distinguish that the vowel sound in "cry" is slightly higher pitched and slightly more nasal than the vowel sound in "light".
When the IPA ø̞̃ sound (yh, ie) comes before an 'r', the IPA sound ɚ̃ replaces it (the vowel becomes "r colored").
| IPA | English word | Zoitei Romanized Phonetic Spelling | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ah | ã | car | kar |
| ia, a | ʌ | but | biat |
| ay | ãɪ | cry | kray |
| ai | ʌɪ | light | lait |
| au | ãʊ | how | xau |
| ao | ʌʊ | out | aot |
| eh | ẽ | fair | fer |
| ea, e | ɛ | end | eand |
| ey | ẽɪ | stay | stey |
| ei | ɛɪ | - | - |
| eu | ẽʊ | - | - |
| eo | ɛʊ | - | - |
| ih | ɪ̃ | finish | finiš |
| iy, i | iː | fear | fiyr |
| iu | ɪ̃ʊ | ew | iu |
| oh | ɒ | gone | gon |
| oa, o | ɔʊ | telephone | tealyfoan |
| oy | ɯɪ | oi | oy |
| oi | ɔ̃ɪ | annoy | ianoi |
| ou, u | uː | soup | soup |
| uh | ɯ | book | buk |
| {u}oe | ɯ | wool | uoel |
| u- | w | well | ueal |
| yh | ø̞̃,ɚ̃ | dirt | dyrt |
| ae, y | æ̃ | sand | saend |
| {y}ie | ø̞̃,ɚ̃ | yer | yier |
| y- | j | year | yiyr |
| io, x | ɔ̃ | pour | pior |
If you're having trouble differentiating pronunciations, you can think of them as the same sound but either having or not having a nasal quality:
| Non-Nasal | Nasal |
|---|---|
| oh | ah |
| ea, e | eh |
| uh (uoe) | yh, (yie) |
| ei | ey |
| oa, o | io, x |
| eo | eu |
| ia, a | ae, y |
| ou, u | iu |
| iy, i | ih |
| ai | ay |
| ao | au |
| oy | oi |
Vowels and Syllables
When two vowels are next to each other, and need to be broken into separate syllables, add a diëresis (or for ASCII, a preceding h).
| IPA | Zoitei Romanized |
|---|---|
| æ̃ | ae |
| ã.ɛ | aë (ahe) |
| ʌ.ɛ | iaë (iahe) |
| ã.ɛn | aëan (ahean) |
| ʌ.ɛn | iaëan (iahean) |
| ã.ẽ | aëh (aheh) |
| ʌ.ẽ | iaëh (iaheh) |
| ã.ẽn | aën (ahen) |
| ʌ.ẽn | iaën (iahen) |
The default syllable emphasis for zoitei by word is:
- STRONG
- STRONG WEAK
- WEAK STRONG WEAK
- WEAK STRONG STRONG WEAK
- WEAK STRONG STRONG STRONG WEAK
- etc.
This can be overridden by using a double vowel for the strong syllables (double the first vowel for emphasis on glide vowels, double the last vowel for elongatation)