Gylic alphabet

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The Gylic alphabet is a Latin-script alphabet used to write the Gylic languages and to transliterate foreign languages spoken in Gylias. The standard version of the alphabet has 30 letters, including the diacritics Ð, Ď, , Ş, Þ, and Ţ. Two additional diacritics occur in specific Gylic languages: Æ in Tanan, and Ŋ in Ŋej.

Alphabet

The basic alphabet consists of 30 letters: 6 vowels (a, e, i, o, u, y) and 24 consonants. The letters q and w are not used in the alphabet. Acute accents are used to mark the stressed vowel in diphthongs.

Letter Name IPA Diacritics
A, a a [a] á
B, b be [b]
C, c ce [tʃ]
D, d de [d]
Ð, ð ðe [ð]
Ď, ď ďe [d͡ʒ]
Ḑ, ḑ ḑe [d͡z]
E, e e [e] é
F, f fe [f]
[ɸ]
G, g ge [g]
H, h he [h]
I, i i [i] í
J, j je [ʒ]
K, K ke [k]
L, l le [l]
M, m me [m]
N, n ne [n]
O, o o [o] ó
P, p pe [p]
R, r re [r]
S, s se [s]
Ş, ş şe [ʃ]
T, t te [t]
Þ, þ þe [θ]
Ţ, ţ ţe [ts]
U, u u [u] ú
V, v ve [v]
X, x xe [x]
Y, y y [ɨ] ý
Z, z ze [z]

Additional letters

Letter Name IPA Occurs in
Æ, æ æ [æ] Tanan
Ŋ, ŋ ŋe [ŋ] Ŋej
Ə, ə ə [ə] Transliterated Breconese and other languages with common mid central vowels

Orthographic principles

Gylic orthography is highly phonemic: each letter stands for a sound and each sound is always represented by the same letter. The use of diacritic consonants is intended to avoid digraphs, and the alphabet as a whole is organised to avoid redundant letters.

The order of the letters is based on the Latin alphabet, with diacritics following the consonants they are applied to. As a result, x, used to represent the voiceless velar fricative, occurs near the end of the alphabet, rather than after the h, which its pronunciation is closer to.

In their respective alphabets, æ and ŋ follow a and n.

History

The Gylic languages have been written with adapted foreign alphabets since the Liúşai League, including the Hellene alphabet, Latin alphabet, runes, and others. The Latin alphabet became more widespread during the post-ancient era, and was adopted as a common alphabet during the Gylian ascendancy, aided by the significant contribution of Anca Déuréy.

Alscia first established an official body to regulate and standardise Gylic languages, as part of the province's modernisation drive. Additional decentralised attempts at language reform and planning took place in the Free Territories.

The modern Gylic alphabet was created by the Gylian languages reform of 1958–1959. The Languages Board established a special 10-member commission to adapt the Latin alphabet into a standardised Gylic script, which could also be used to facilitate Gylic study of foreign languages. The commission's decisions included:

Due to the divergence between the standardised Gylic alphabet and other Latin alphabets, Miranian ruby characters were popularly adapted as a reading aid and gloss. It is quite common for Gylic language media and schoolbooks to place small Gylic alphabet annotations above loanwords and foreign language text as pronunciation guides.

Use of such annotations is especially important for letters whose Gylic pronunciations differ from convention — x is annotated using ks, for example. Some of these annotations draw on knowledge of other languages spoken in Gylias, such as Germanic umlauts to represent the sounds [øː] and [yː], or Kōshiki macrons to represent long vowels.