Zoinx pronounciation and spelling

Spelling

The capitalization of the first word of each sentence is optional in Zoinx, and not very common; only proper names are usually capitalized. The # sign, which is not pronounced, is used only to separate, in writing, the name of a person and the word which is always tacked to the end of it, and which specifies the grammatical position of person. That word is the same as the personal pronoun that would be used to refer to that person, such as go when mentioning one's own name, or ga for the listener's name.

The equal sign, =, is used in Zoinx where other languages use quotes, "like this" or ``like this'', which would be done =like this= in Zoinx. It is used to refer to the words quoted themselves, as opposed to what they mean or refer to. Witness the difference between the sentences He said that he was coming and He said "I am coming!"; in the second you could replace the "I am coming" with a meaningless word such as "blurf" and the sentence He said "blurf!" would still make sense.

The spelling in Zoinx is not strictly phonetic; some letters will be pronounced differently depending on their position in the word, or on the surrounding letters. In most cases, though, you can guess the spelling of a word just by hearing it, and the other way round.

Generally speaking, the Zoinx language is mostly pronounced with the front of the mouth, like English, French and Swedish and unlike Spanish or Catalan. This shows in letters such as the s, which is slightly more whistling than it would be in Spanish. The vowels are rather tense.

Foreign words are often read in Zoinx using the Zoinx pronounciation, except for places where it would be unpronounceable, such as the sh and ch combinations in English words, which would be read like in English.

Vowels

a

Pronounced like the a in father, somewhat more closed than the French or Spanish a. When unstressed, and particularily at the end of a word, it can be weakened to be almost the schwa sound like the a in around, but it should still be distinguishable from an e in the same position. [hear it: andiras]

e

Most of the time pronounced like the French, Catalan and Spanish é, it can also be an open è sound as in bet, especially when followed by an i. It should never be the extremely open sound of the German ä, though. When unstressed, or at the end of the word, it is often close to a schwa, but still different from an a in the same position. These rules are not strict, the exact sound should be the one that feels the most natural at that position in the word, depending on where the stress falls and on the surrounding letters. [hear it: dedelamnio]

i

This is the sound that just about every western language but English assigns to the letter i; it ranges from the ee sound in tea to the i in hit, depending on whether it is stressed or not. [hear it: silas]

o

A closed sound like the o in or; it can also be the more open o sound as in other, especially when followed by an i. When unstressed, it can be weakened to the oo sound in boom. [hear it: podale]

u

This is a difficult sound, halfway between the French eu (as in jeu) and u (as in une). Try to put your mouth in the position to pronounce an o as in ordinary and say an i instead, without rounding your lips as much as you would for the French u. When unstressed, it is generally pronounced as a Spanish u, like the English oo in boom. [hear it: fuz, gu]

Diphthongs in Zoinx are always made with one of the vowels being an i, which gets pronounced like the y in you, but without the aspiration. If the i comes before the other vowel, the diphthong is said to be ascending, otherwise it is descending.

In writing, diphthongs are marked by a grave accent (`) over the two letters (roughly in the middle). Two consecutive vowels without a ` should always be read as two separate syllables. In typewritten (or computer-written) text, accents cannot generally be placed above two letters; in that case they can be placed between them (as in a`i) or on top of the main letter (as in ài). In this document, they will always be placed in between.

The ascending diphthongs are i`a, i`e, i`o and i`u. The descending diphthongs are a`i, e`i and o`i. There is no i`i or u`i. A descending diphthong can never be directly followed by a vowel.

When the letters e and a appear consecutively, in two different syllables, a short i is often inserted between them, as if it was written ei`a (eià) instead of ea. Simiarily, the combination eo is usually read as if it were written ei`o (eiò).

Consonants

b

As in English blue. Between vowels, the sound is softened by letting some air through your lips like in French and Catalan. [hear it: bliz, nebas]

c

Relatively rare in Zoinx, it is always pronounced like a k. In foreign words, it can be read as an unvoiced s, as a k or as a ts, whichever comes closer to the original pronounciation.

d

As in English dumb. Between vowels, it can be softened to be almost the same as the th sound in there. [hear it: dedelamnio, podale]

f

As in English.

g

Always the hard sound as in again. It should still be distinguishable from a k at the end of a word. [hear it: gu]

h

As in English. [hear it: huras]

j

The soft j sound as in French je, or as the s in pleasure. It should not be pronounced dj as the j in jealous; that sound is actually written tj. [hear it: jebie]

k

As in English. Note that there is no ck or qu, and that the c is rare.

l, m

As in English.

n

The basic n sound as in nose. When followed by a g or a k, the sound changes to a ng sound as in gong, but the g or k is pronounced too.

p

As in English. There are no combinations like the English ph.

q

Not a native Zoinx letter. Pronounced k in foreign words; in that case, if it is followed by a u, the u should be pronounced too.

r

An intermediary sound between the short and long versions of the Catalan and Spanish r, as in cara and carro. The sound is trilled only once, but stronger than the single r in cara, as if you were almost going to trill it fully. [hear it: lora]

s

This can range between the s sound in silly to the z sound in zip. Zoinx does not make a difference between these two sounds, so they can be used interchangably; the voiced sound is most usual between vowels.

t

As in English.

v

As in English, like the v in void. Between vowels, it can be weakened to be almost the same as the weakened b sound. [hear it: evi]

w

Not a Zoinx native letter, it is usually read like a v.

x

Another difficult sound, this is similar to the k sound in the Swedish kära or the skj in skjorta, and also to the ch sound in the German leicht as pronounced in northern Germany (not the same as the Spanish j sound!), and to the English h in the word huge. Try putting your mouth in the position to say i (as the ea sound in tea) and, without moving your tongue, letting air through as in trying to do the sh sound. At the end of the word, the x is always pronounced like an English th, as in growth. [hear it: xerva]

z

This is the sh sound as in she. Almost always found at the end of the word. [hear it: fuz] The combination tz is pronounced like the English tch.

There are a few combinations that in other languages get often written with just one letter, and are two letters in Zoinx. An example of this is tj, which is pronounced similarily to the j sound in the English jealous but a little stronger, almost like dj. Other combinations, like ts, are pronounced just like their spelling suggests, as in tsunami. The combination kx is particularily hard to pronounce at first; try isolating the ky sound in thank you, and turning the y into a fricative by letting some air through your mouth.

The typical Zoinx syllable is of the form (C1)(C2)V(C3) where C is a consonant and V is a vowel, and anything marked in () is optional. If C1 and C2 both appear, at least one of the two must be one of n, m, s, f and l. Additionally, there may be another consonant C4 at the end of the last syllable of the word. This is unusual, though, and cannot happen if the vowel V is replaced with a diphthong.

In quick, common speech, some sound shifts occur in consonant clusters, with one consonant moving "closer" to the other. Typically, a word like mse`i will often sound like nse`i or even dse`i when pronounced quickly. On the other hand, in formal speech or when trying to enunciate words clearly, it is common to lengthen these same consonants, making the m in mse`i almost to be a syllable on its own.

Stress and intonation

In words with more than 3 or 4 syllables, there is often a secondary stress, the position of which isn't fixed by strict rules. If the word has suffixes, and especially if it has more than one (such as the negation of a conjugated verb), one of the suffixes can get a secondary stress. Otherwise it can be the second-to-last or third-to-last syllable (but not the last), depending on how long the word is.

Stress in Zoinx is marked by lengthening and strengthening the vowel. Unstressed vowels are often shorter, and the vowel in the second syllable of a word is often hard to hear.

The typical Zoinx intonation is quite floating, and the intonation in general is much more marked than in English. The tone rises slightly at the beginning of the sentence, and on the stressed syllables of the main words of each sentence. Short pauses can be made quite freely between groups of words, such as between the subject and the object, or between complements, or before conjunctions. The tone usually falls at the end of the sentence, except for questions, where it rises.

An example of a typical Zoinx intonation would be

  Esane  go   forea  xerva  ga  ro sga  dedelamnio  era.

  `-------_ p `-------^------`  ---------`---^----  ^-_

[Hear it]

Exceptions

zoinx is the only Zoinx word with an unmarked full diphthong, with a z pronounced like a voiced s, and with a x pronounced ks.

In formal speech, it is not uncommon to hear the Zoinx-ized pronounciation of the word Zoinx itself, which in English would be close to Shoh-eenth. This is considered to sound rather pretentious. [hear it: zoinx]