Vorvahr (vɔrvɑʁ)

The core language of the dwarves of PÈRYL, Vorvahr orthography uses the Roman alphabet to approximate the in-universe language, and makes use of the acute accent, the grave accent, the diaresis, to indicate specific phonemes, disambiguate, and indicate emphasis or gender. Accented letters are counted as separate characters for collation purposes.

The spelling of Vorvahr—as represented in the Roman alphabet—is phonemic. There are no silent letters and only a few ambiguous cases (with vowels there is a near perfect one-to-one correspondence between sounds.

The Vorvahr alphabet consists of a string of pairs, voiced and unvoiced consonants. In the Rheddoa dialect all the voiced consonants are absent; foreign words are devoiced. The standard Vorvahr alphabet follows:
TH H, Q Rh, C G, Ch J, T D, S Z, Sh X, P B, F V, L R.
Plus the vowels A E I O U and their diacritics À, Ò, É, Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö.

Phonology

Diacritics

Vorvahr makes use of five diacritics: the acute accent (é), grave accent (à, ò), and the diaresis (ä, ë, ï, ö).

Grapheme Pronunciation:
à ɑ, ɑː
ä æ
é e
ë ɛ
ï ɪ
ò o
ö ɔ


The acute accent indicates that the E vowel is stressed and pronounced /e/; normally the character E is pronounced /ɛ/; when E is followed by a vowel and it is not accented, it is /i/.

The grave accent marks one of two things—both if possible—that the vowel is stressed, or if followed by a liquid it is not meant to blend with that consonant. For example: Oroc vs. òroc vs. òròc → /ɔr.ɔk/ vs. /o.rɔk/ vs. /o.rok/. Without the grave accent, all three would be homonyms. Although Vorvahr does not mark vowel length distinctions, like most other Gruthen languages, lone stressed vowels tend to be pronounced longer. Thus Ò is often /oː/, but never /ɔ/; and À is interchangeable with AA both rendered /ɑː/. Like Qh'énnish À can also indicate female gender.

The grave accent can also demarcate two consecutive vowels in adjacent words, shifting them to one vowel sandhi. it is however ambiguous whether this would render the ensuing word female gendered. For example:
1. Thraitah + aqora → ah+a → à; thus Thrait'àqora /θrɑjtɑqɔrɑ/ (and the H is elided here).
2. Dao + innor → ao+i → ào; thus dàonnor /'dɑon.nɔr/.


The letters with diaresis are now used exclusively to separate vowels and prevent diphthongization. For example: 1. Teivvahr vs. Teïvvahr → /tɛjvɑʁ/ vs. /ti.ɪv.vɑʁ/. 2. Oiddr vs. oïddr → /ɔjθɚ/ vs. /o.ɪθ.θɚ/ (the Rheddoa dialect renders DD → /θ/).

Diphthongs

The pronunciation of each diphthong is regular, because the use of diacritics distinguish true diphthongs from adjacent vowels which belong to separate syllables. For example, in the word Qzao /ˈqzɑo/ (the snake god; a family name), the A forms a clear diphthong with the subsequent vowel O, but in qzaöt /qzɑ.'ot/ (a place where snakes are; a hibernaculum), where there is no diphthong. As above, this is indicated with a diaresis, distinguishing homographs such as shaia /ˈʃɑjɑ/ rom shaïa /ʃɑ.'i.ɑ/.

The possible diphthongs in Vorvahr are as follows distinguished from similar spelt monothongs:
aa*, à /ɑː/ (vs. aä* /a.'a/)
ai, ài /ɑj/ (vs. aï /ɑ.i/)
ao, ào /ɑo/
ei /ɛj ~ ij/ (vs. eï /i.ɪ/)
éi /ej/
oi /ɔj/ (vs. oï /o.ɪ/)
òi /oj/


(*very rarely used.)