Mistian is the language of nightmist created by Ste J Edwards. The language is based upon the welsh pronounciation in English structure. This makes the language alot more easier to understand and learn, as all other languages have a different structure to the English language, like french for example.
We will start off our first lesson by getting to know how to pronounce the letters in the Mistian language.
If you know the welsh language well, you will be able to get this quite easily. Unlike welsh itself, Mistian uses symbols that are often seen in the french language to tell you how they are pronounced, this makes learning the language more easy.
Like welsh, the spelling is much more 'phonetic' (or, to be more accurate, phonemic) than english or french. There is a closer correspondence between symbol and sound. Each consonant has one sound only. Ff and ph obviously have the same sound.
VOWEL SOUNDS
Mistian vowel sounds are 'pure' sounds, similar to those found in spanish and italian. The long vowel sounds must not be diphtongised as in english. For example, To (long o) is pronounced as to(h), not as tow.
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á - long, as in 'father', or 'Part'
a - short, as in 'Jack', or 'Cap'
é - long, as in 'pale', or 'fail' (Pronounced 'ay', not 'ee')
e - short, as in 'pen', or 'head'
í - long, as in 'machine', or 'meal' (pronounced as 'ee' not 'aye')
i - short, as in 'pin', or 'dim'
ó - long, as in 'chorus', or 'more', and sometimes as 'wrong'.
o - short, as in 'pop', or 'hot' (a gutteral sound)
ú - long, as in 'meal' (same as í)
u - short, as in 'pin' (same as i) U in Mistian is never pronounced as 'uh', but always as 'ee' or 'ih' (as in pin)
w - a long vowel sound as in 'fool'. in Mistian, "ffwl". (usually has an accent above)
w - short, as in english 'took', or 'book'
y - This symbol represents two sounds:
(1a) A long vowel similar to í 'ee', which is only used at the end of words, like for example 'hynny' (pron. Honey)
the first y represents an 'uh' sound, while the last y represents the 'ee' sound.
(1b) A short sound similar to i in 'bin'. This letter usually has an accent above it, to make it easier.
y - (2) This sound is similar to U, as in 'up', or 'shut', like in hynny (pron. Honey).
CONSONANTS
b - As in english
c - Always the hard sound of C in 'cap', never as in 'ace". Therefore the Mistian alphabet dispenses with K.
ch - As in german Bach, scottish Loch, never as in 'church'. Two consecutive ch's are sounded as one.
d - As in english; Dim.
dd - Used to represent the softer th sound as in english 'Breathe', or 'the', and 'though', never as in 'thing', or 'thought'
f - Always as in english 'of'. There is no V in the Mistian alphabet.
ff - As in english 'off', or 'film'.
g - Always as in 'get', or 'garden'. Never as in 'George'.
ng - As in english 'sing', but never as in 'angel', or 'danger'
h - As in english
j - As in english
l - As in english
m - As in english
n - As in english
p - As in english
ph - As in english (Similar to ff)
r - As in english
s - Always as in 'sit', never as in 'nose'.
si - Pronounced as 'sh' in 'english', or 'shop'.
th - Always as in english 'thing', or 'thought' never as in 'the', or 'though'
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PART 2 OF MISTIAN PRONOUNCIATION WILL BE POSTED LATER
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Edited by Fingolfin, 16 May 2004 - 12:57 AM.
