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.
I have used this system of transcription for the Bardekian and
Elvish alphabets as well as the Deverrian, which is, of course,
based upon the Greek rather than the Roman model. In spite of the
ridiculous controversy still continuing in certain university
circles, I see no reason to confuse the ordinary reader with the
technical method of Elvish transcription in common use among
linguists and scholars. Anyone who wishes to learn this system may
of course refer to the standard works upon the subject available
from the University of Aberwyn Press; the average reader of popular
fiction would no doubt rather forgo such a formidable experience. I
am surprised at the stubbornness of certain professors of Elvish,
to say nothing of a certain Elvish professor, which has forced me
to append such a self-evident remark to these notes. One can only
assume that these persons are underemployed by their academic
institutions if they have the leisure to write scurrilous articles
about contemporary novelists rather than devoting themselves to
their proper areas of expertise.
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.
I have used this system of transcription for the Bardekian and
Elvish alphabets as well as the Deverrian, which is, of course,
based upon the Greek rather than the Roman model. In spite of the
ridiculous controversy still continuing in certain university
circles, I see no reason to confuse the ordinary reader with the
technical method of Elvish transcription in common use among
linguists and scholars. Anyone who wishes to learn this system may
of course refer to the standard works upon the subject available
from the University of Aberwyn Press; the average reader of popular
fiction would no doubt rather forgo such a formidable experience. I
am surprised at the stubbornness of certain professors of Elvish,
to say nothing of a certain Elvish professor, which has forced me
to append such a self-evident remark to these notes. One can only
assume that these persons are underemployed by their academic
institutions if they have the leisure to write scurrilous articles
about contemporary novelists rather than devoting themselves to
their proper areas of expertise.