The language spoken in Deverry is a member of
the P-Celtic family. Although closely related to Welsh, Cornish,
and Breton, it is by no means identical to any of these actual
languages and should never be taken as such. Vowels are divided by Deverry scribes into two classes:
noble and common. Nobles have two pronunciations; commons, one.
A as in father when long; a shorter version of the same
sound, as in far, when short.
O as in bone when long; as in pot when
short.
W as the oo in spook when long; as in
roof when short.
Y as the i in machine when long; as the
e in butter when short.
E as in pen.
I as in pin.
U as in pun.
Vowels are generally long in stressed
syllables; short in unstressed. Y is the primary exception to this
rule. When it appears as the last letter of a word, it is always
long whether that syllable is stressed or not. Diphthongs generally have one consistent
pronunciation.
AE as the a in mane.
AI as in aisle.
AU as the ow in how.
EO as a combination of eh and oh.
EW as in Welsh, a combination of eh and
oo.
IE as in pier.
OE as the oy in boy.
UI as the North Welsh wy, a combination of oo
and ee. Note that OI is never a diphthong, but is two
distinct sounds, as in carnoic (KAR-noh-ik). Consonants are mostly the same as in English, with
these exceptions:
C is always hard as in cat.
G is always hard as in get.
DD is the voiced th as in thin or
breathe, but the voicing is more pronounced than in
English. It is opposed to TH, the unvoiced sound as in th
or breath, (This is the sound that the Greeks called the
Celtic tau.)
R is heavily rolled.
RH is a voiceless R, approximately pronounced as if it were
spelled hr in Deverry proper. In Eldidd, the sound is fast
becoming indistinguishable from R.
DW, GW, and TW are single sounds, as in Gwendolen or
twit.
Y is never a consonant.
I before a vowel at the beginning of a word, is consonantal, as
it is in the plural ending -ion, pronounced
yawn.
Doubled consonants are both sounded clearly, unlike in
English. Note, however, that DD is a single letter, not a
doubled consonant.
Accent is generally on the penultimate syllable, but
compound words and place names are often an exception to this
rule.
This is, of course, the same system of transcription used in the
earlier volumes of these chronicles—a fact that may surprise some few readers. I refer to those scholars of Elvish, as well as one well-known Elvish scholar, who have taken time better employed elsewhere to criticize my decision to dispense with the vast apparatus of diacritical marks with which they attempt to render on paper that most nuanced of languages. No reader of popular fiction wants or needs to wade his or her way through a page where long names bristle with peculiar typefaces like some sort of verbal porcupines. In my approximations I have as before relied upon native speakers of Elvish in difficult or ambiguous cases; I trust that their judgment will eventually carry the day even in academic circles and that this tedious debate in the back pages of various linguistic journals will at last be put to rest.
The language spoken in Deverry is a member of
the P-Celtic family. Although closely related to Welsh, Cornish,
and Breton, it is by no means identical to any of these actual
languages and should never be taken as such. Vowels are divided by Deverry scribes into two classes:
noble and common. Nobles have two pronunciations; commons, one.
A as in father when long; a shorter version of the same
sound, as in far, when short.
O as in bone when long; as in pot when
short.
W as the oo in spook when long; as in
roof when short.
Y as the i in machine when long; as the
e in butter when short.
E as in pen.
I as in pin.
U as in pun.
Vowels are generally long in stressed
syllables; short in unstressed. Y is the primary exception to this
rule. When it appears as the last letter of a word, it is always
long whether that syllable is stressed or not. Diphthongs generally have one consistent
pronunciation.
AE as the a in mane.
AI as in aisle.
AU as the ow in how.
EO as a combination of eh and oh.
EW as in Welsh, a combination of eh and
oo.
IE as in pier.
OE as the oy in boy.
UI as the North Welsh wy, a combination of oo
and ee. Note that OI is never a diphthong, but is two
distinct sounds, as in carnoic (KAR-noh-ik). Consonants are mostly the same as in English, with
these exceptions:
C is always hard as in cat.
G is always hard as in get.
DD is the voiced th as in thin or
breathe, but the voicing is more pronounced than in
English. It is opposed to TH, the unvoiced sound as in th
or breath, (This is the sound that the Greeks called the
Celtic tau.)
R is heavily rolled.
RH is a voiceless R, approximately pronounced as if it were
spelled hr in Deverry proper. In Eldidd, the sound is fast
becoming indistinguishable from R.
DW, GW, and TW are single sounds, as in Gwendolen or
twit.
Y is never a consonant.
I before a vowel at the beginning of a word, is consonantal, as
it is in the plural ending -ion, pronounced
yawn.
Doubled consonants are both sounded clearly, unlike in
English. Note, however, that DD is a single letter, not a
doubled consonant.
Accent is generally on the penultimate syllable, but
compound words and place names are often an exception to this
rule.
This is, of course, the same system of transcription used in the
earlier volumes of these chronicles—a fact that may surprise some few readers. I refer to those scholars of Elvish, as well as one well-known Elvish scholar, who have taken time better employed elsewhere to criticize my decision to dispense with the vast apparatus of diacritical marks with which they attempt to render on paper that most nuanced of languages. No reader of popular fiction wants or needs to wade his or her way through a page where long names bristle with peculiar typefaces like some sort of verbal porcupines. In my approximations I have as before relied upon native speakers of Elvish in difficult or ambiguous cases; I trust that their judgment will eventually carry the day even in academic circles and that this tedious debate in the back pages of various linguistic journals will at last be put to rest.