Vowels
The 12 vowels (counting approximates as vowels) are arranged visually, organized by loud / quiet and big / small:
| loud | quiet | |
|---|---|---|
| 0s | yh / {y}ie | ae / y' |
| 1s | ih | iy / i' |
| 2s | ah | ia / a' |
| 3B | eh | ea / e' |
| 4B | uh / {u}oe | ou / u' |
| 5B | oh | oa / o' |
The semivowel / glide vowel for iy / i' is written y- / -y (yeet would be written yiyt) and the semivowel / glide vowel for ou / u' is written u- / -u (swoon would be written suoun).
Vowels written are assumed to be loud by default, unless they are the last letter in a word (or precede a -). To make the last letter in the word loud, follow it with a lone 'h' (syllable break).
| ASCII | Unicode | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| axa | axa | ah + x + a' (ah-huh) |
| axah | axah | ah + x + ah (ah-ha) |
| iaxa | a'xa | a' + x + a' (uh-huh) |
| iaxah | a'xah | a' + x + ah (a-ha) |
Pronunciation
| English word | Zoitei Romanized Phonetic Spelling | |
|---|---|---|
| ah | car | kar |
| ia / a' | art | iart / a'rt |
| ay | cry | kray |
| ai | light | lait |
| au | how | xau |
| ao | out | aot |
| eh | fair | fer |
| ea / e' | end | eand / e'nd |
| ey | stay | stey |
| ei | (bag) | (beig) |
| eu | - | - |
| eo | - | - |
| ih | finish | finish / finiš |
| iy / i' | fear | fiyr / fi'r |
| iu | ew | iu |
| oh | gone | gon |
| oa / o' | phone | foan / fo'n |
| oy | - | - |
| oi | annoy | ianoi / a'noi |
| ou / u' | soup | soup / su'p |
| uh | book | buk |
| {u}oe | word | uoerd |
| u- | well | ueal / ue'l |
| yh | dirt | dyrt |
| ae / y' | sand | saend / sy'nd |
| {y}ie | yer | yier |
| y- | year | yiyr |
Note on ("bag")
Depending on accent, it may be pronounced "baeg" / "by'g", "beg", "beyg" or "beig". Due to "ei" being only used in some northern midwest accents, it can be a stand-in when writing English in Zoitei for the speaker's chosen pronunciations.
Similar sounds
"uh" is similar to "yh". To know the difference say the word "wonderful"; written as "uiandyrful" or "ua'ndyrful". "uh" is lower pitched and longer than "yh", and "uh" is closer to the front of the mouth than "yh".
"ei" is similar to "ey". "ey" can be thought of as a more nasal version of "ei", while "ei" is softer. Similarly, "eu" is the more nasal version of "eo", both also similar to "iu" with more emphasis upfront.
"oy" is pronounced closer to "ai" (although one might assume it's closer to "ay"; it is not as the 'oh' sound is replaced with an 'uh' sound), but lower pitched, while "ai" is softer.
Vowels and Syllables
For ASCII, use h to split syllables between vowels. For Unicode, use the diëresis to split vowels. For both, to make the first vowel quiet, use the two-letter spelling.
| ASCII | Unicode | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| iaheal | iaë'l | a + e'l |
| iahel | iaël | a + el |
| aheal | aë'l | ah + e'l |
| ahel | aël | ah + el |
| iahe | iaë | a + e |
| iaheh | iaëh | a + eh |
| ahe | aë | ah + e |
| aheh | aëh | ah + eh |
| ahehoh | aëöh | ah + eh + oh |
| aheho | aëö | ah + eh + o |
| aheahoh | aëaöh | ah + e + oh |
| aheaho | aëaö | ah + e + o |
| iahehoh | iaëöh | a + eh + oh |
| iaheho | iaëö | a + eh + o |
| iaheahoh | iaëaöh | a + e + oh |
| iaheaho | iaëaö | a + e + o |