Renian orthography

The Renian orthography (Gadori: Gadoꭈiʃe Orħografi or Gadoꭈiʃe Reȝtʃreibuŋ) is a set of rules, that guide the written form of the Renian language.

Alphabet

Renian alphabet Reniʃes Alfabet
The Luħeꭈbibel from 1533
Type	Alphabet
Languages	Renian language
Created	1850
Published	1854
Parent systems	Latin script Renian alphabet

A a /a ~ ä/	Ɒ ɒ /ɒ ~ ʌ/	Ꞛ ꞛ /ɛ ~ æ/	B b /b/	C c /t͡s/	Ƈ ƈ /t͡ʃ/	D d /d/	E e /e/	F f /f/	G g /g/
H h /ɦ ~ h/	Ħ ħ /θ ~ ð/	Ȝ ȝ /x/	I i /i/	J j /ʝ ~ j/	K k /k/	L l ɭ /l ~ ɭ/	M m /m/	M̂ m̂ /m̩/	N n /n/
N̂ n̂ /n̩/	Ŋ ŋ /ŋ/	O o /ɔ ~ o/	Ꞝ ꞝ /œ ~ ɞ/	P p /p/	Q q /q/	R r ꭈ /ʀ ~ r/	S s ſ /z/	ẞ ß /s/	Ʃ ʃ ȷ /ʃ ~ ʒ/
T t /t/	U u /u/	Ꞟ ꞟ /y ~ ɨ/	V v /v/	Ƿ ƿ /w/	X x /ks/	Y y /ɪ/	Z z /d͡z/

Official version			Diacritic version		Digraph version		IPA Symbol	Example of a common word with the sound
1	A	a	A	a	A	a	/a/	After
2	Å	å	Å	å	Ao	ao	/ɒ/	Not
3	Ꞛ	ꞛ	Ä	ä	Ae	ae	/æ/	Bed
4	B	b	B	b	B	b	/b/	Label
5	C	c	C	c	C	c	/ʦ/	Its
6	Ƈ	ƈ	Č	č	Tsch	Tsch	/ʧ/	Check
7	D	d	D	d	D	d	/d/	Done
8	E	e	E	e	E	e	/e/	Bed (Australian accent)
9	F	f	F	f	F	f	/f/	Fine
10	G	g	G	g	G	g	/ɡ/	Game
11	H	h	H	h	H	h	/ɦ/ /h/	Hello
12	Ħ	ħ	Ĥ	ĥ	Th	th	/ð/ /θ/	This / Thin
13	Ȝ	ȝ	Ȟ	ȟ	Ch	ch	/x/	Velar fricative (not in common: examples: voiceless / voiced)
14	I	i	I	i	I	i	/i/	Free
15	J	j	J	j	J	j	/j/	You
16	K	k	K	k	K	k	/k/	Key
17	L	l	L	l	L	l	/l/	Later
		ɭ		ĺ			/ɭ/	Not in common. Example: "Sorl" in Swedish
18	M	m	M	m	M	m	/m/	Mother
19	M̂	m̂	M̂	m̂			/m̩/	Impressionism
20	N	n	N	n	N	n	/n/	Month
21	N̂	n̂	N̂	n̂			/n̩/	Even
22	Ŋ	ŋ	Ň	ň	Ng	ng	/ŋ/	Doing
23	O	o	O	o	O	o	/o/ /ɔ/	Yawn / Not
24	Ꞝ	ꞝ	Ö	ö	Oe	oe	/œ/	Bird (General New Zealand)
25	P	p	P	p	P	p	/p/	Play
26	Q	q	Q	q	Q	q	/k͡v/	A bigram of /k/ and /v/, for example in Question
27	R	r	R	r	R	r	/ʀ/	Red (Northumbrian dialect)
		ꭈ		ŕ			/r/	Bright
28	S	s	S	s	S	s	/s/	Zoo
		ſ
29	ẞ	ß	ẞ	ß	ẞ	ß	/s/	Surprise
30	Ʃ	ʃ	Š	š	Sch	sch	/ʃ/	Show
		ȷ		ž			/ʒ/	Pleasure
31	T	t	T	t	T	t	/t/	Time
32	U	u	U	u	U	u	/u/	Boot
33	Ꞟ	ꞟ	Ü	ü	Ue	ue	/y/ /ɨ/	Few (Multicultural London)
34	V	v	V	v	V	v	/v/	Valve
35	Ƿ	ƿ	Ƿ	ƿ	W	w	/w/	Weep
36	X	x	X	x	X	x	/k͡s/	A bigram of /k/ and /s/, for example in Maximal
37	Y	y	Y	y	Y	y	/ɪ/	Bit (General American)
38	Z	z	Z	z	Z	z	/ʣ/	Voiced alveolar affricate (not in common)

Former orthographies

Ꞛ ꞛ
Ꞛ ꞛ

Ɑ ɑ
Ɑ ɑ

Ꞝ ꞝ
Ꞝ ꞝ

Ꞟ ꞟ
Ꞟ ꞟ

In the older orthographies, notably back in the Baroque and Rococo, special symbols were used for Å, Ä, Ö and Ü. Those symbols later fell into disuse after the more wide spread of the typewriter, which did not include such symbols. Similar thing happened around the same time in neighboring languages, specifically the Louzen language.

The changes were:

• Ꞛ ꞛ → Ä ä (Renian Ae → A-umlaut)
• Ɑ ɑ → Å å (Latin alpha → A-ring)
• Ꞝ ꞝ → Ö ö (Renian Oe → O-umlaut)
• Ꞟ ꞟ → Ü ü (Renian Ue → U-umlaut)

Even today, there are some enthusiasts using the old letters for umlauts (Ꞛ, Ꞝ and Ꞟ) in a revivalist hope to bring them back (although the letter Ɑ is ignored even by them).

Digraph orthography

Back in the middle ages, the Renian language used a digraph (polygraph) orthography. Some notable examples include:

• Ae (or lignature Æ) for present-day Ä
• Ao (or lignature Ꜵ) for present-day Å
• Oe (or lignature Œ) for present-day Ö
• Ue (or lignature ) for present-day Ü
• Tsch for present-day Ƈ
• Th for present-day Ħ
• Ch for present-day Ȝ
• lj for present-day miniscule form ɭ
• Ng for present-day Ŋ
• rr for present-day miniscule form ꭈ
• Sz (at the time written as ſʒ), which evolved into ẞ
• Sch for present-day Ʃ

Many of those symbols fell into disuse, with shifts, that are no longer used, including:

• Ae ae → Æ æ → Ꞛ ꞛ
• Ao ao → Ꜵ ꜵ → Ɑ ɑ
• Oe oe → Œ œ → Ꞝ ꞝ
• Ue ue → ᵫ → Ꞟ ꞟ

Current orthography rules

Letters with more miniscule forms

Letter L

L l ɭ
L l ɭ

The letter L has two miniscule variants:

• The short "l": Represents the sound /l/
• The long "ɭ": Represents the sound /ɭ/

Both capitalized are written as "L", the first letter is always read alveolary (/l/)

Letter R

R r ꭈ
R r ꭈ

The letter R has two miniscule variants:

• The soft "r": Represents the sound /ʀ/
• The hard "ꭈ": Represents the sound /r/

Both capitalized are written as "R", the first letter is always read alveolary (/r/)

Letter S

S s ſ
S s ſ

The letter S has two miniscule variants. Unlike the other groups, there is no difference in pronunciation, only in location:

• The short "s" is written in the middle or on the beginning of a syllable
• The long "ſ" is written on the end if a syllable

Both capitalized are written as "S"

Letter Ʃ

Ʃ ʃ ȷ
Ʃ ʃ ȷ

The letter Ʃ has two miniscule variants:

• The soft "ʃ": Represents the voiceless variant (/ʃ/)
• The hard "ȷ": Represents the voiced variant (/ʒ/)

Both capitalized are written as "Ʃ", the first letter is always read voicelessly (/ʃ/)

Letter ẞ

ẞ ß
ẞ ß

The letter (ẞ) was created by a lignature of the letters long S (ſ) and tailed Z (ʒ), which were later merged into a single character. This also explains the name "Eßset"

Syllabic leters

M̂ m̂
M̂ m̂

N̂ n̂
N̂ n̂

There are two letters for syllabic consonants: the syllabic M (/m̩/) and syllabic N (/n̩/).