#idk I want to tag this much rly since it's kinda useless on its own

[reborrowing]

Kíkítok Pronunciation/Spelling

Kíkítok Main Post (messy)

This is the kinda boring bit where I explain how to read and make noises.

I don’t actually love this orthography as an in-universe spelling. I think realistically, it would be less standardized and potentially not even in Latin characters. So this would be more of an academic romanization that’s mostly phonetic which makes it easy to read.

So, let’s look at this alphabet. All vowels have two pronunciations, tense and lax, and it’s fairly predictable. In general, I’m going to use IPA notation for explaining pronunciation, but comparisons are made to “standard” American English here for you to refer back to if you’d like.

Also, there are so many good resources for learning IPA sounds, if you can't figure out what I'm talking about for a given sound.

a -

tense - /a/, similar to in cat

lax - /ɛ/, as in pet

b - /b/ as in boy

c - /c/, not used in English. Similar to a t, but produced by placing the body of your tongue on slightly further back on the palate / roof of your mouth

d - /ɟ/, not used in English. Similar to a d, but produced with the body of your tongue on your palate

e

tense - /e/, similar to the sound in late

lax - /ɪ/, as in sit

f - /f/, as in fire

variably produced as /ɸ/, an f without your lips touching your teeth

g - /g/, as in garden

h - /x/, not in English. It's the same sound as in (Mexican) Spanish j

i 

tense - /i/ as in eat

lax - /ɪ/ as in sit

j - /dʒ/ as in judge

k - /k/ as in break*

m - /m/ as in mom

n - /n/ as in no

o

tense - /ɔ/ like in caught**

lax - /ʊ/ as in put

p - /p/ as in soap*

q - /ʔ/, as in the sound between syllables in uh-oh

r - /r/, not in English, “rolled r”

 when it comes after another consonant, [ɹ] as in bride

s - /s/, as in sew

t - /t/, as in white*

u

tense - /u/, as in goose

lax - /ʊ/, as in put

v - /v/ as in van

w - /w/ as in wine.

y - /j/, as in yam

z - /z/, as in zebra

ts - /t͡s/ potentially as in tsunami. A lot of English speakers don’t pronounce the t, in which case, as in the Japanese pronunciation of tsunami.

ch - /t͡ʃ/, as in church

sh - /ʃ/, as in shy

ai - /aɪ/, as in fly

oi - /ɔɪ/, as in boy

ou - /oʊ/, as in go

*/p, t, k/ in Gáshutok are unaspirated, which makes them different than the /p, t, k/ English speakers produce at the beginning of a word.

**/ɔ/ is not in all English accents. If you pronounce caught identically to cot, you don't have /ɔ/ as a part of your English (and if you're american, you're prooooobably from the west coast). I don't have it.

The first accent mark in a word marks stress. This is often the first syllable in the word. The exception to this is when a diphthong (two vowels next to each other) occurs before an accent mark, in which case stress falls on the diphthong.

Stress is enunciated similarly to in English, where we say the syllable with more force and slightly louder. However, the pitch of the stressed syllable also jumps up, like what you would expect to hear in Norwegian. (ie, go look over there for an example if you need one.)

Additional accent marks in a word do not mark stress and only indicate that the vowel is spoken with a tensed pronunciation. Barring additional accent marks, assume vowels alternate between tense and lax. Tensed vowels which are unstressed do slightly pitch upwards.

Examples, where stress is underlined, tense is bold:

Ímamo kai pá? (How are you?, lit. you eat well?)

Tí chú bó kyú? (What's your name?, lit. this person is who?)

Bébteme Kíkítok yá? (Do you speak Kíkítok?)

Some vowels are variable. In function words (prepositions, particles) without an accent mark, the vowel is unstressed and continues the tense-lax-tense pattern from the previous word.

Chíkosot ka up. (I can't hear you.)

Chíkosot up. (I don't hear you.)