Postby hleifr himins » 2005-10-30, 17:09
CONSONANTS
Most of Prussian consonants can be either SOFT (palatalized) or HARD (not palatalized). The palatalization ("softness") can be marked:
- by putting a sign "," under or over letters k, g, t, d, n, r, for example: ķ, ģ, ţ, ņ, ŗ: ķāsi, waiţātwei;
- by adding a letter j after consonants b, f, m, p, w, for example: pjausē, etc. This way could be used also when there's no possibility to use letters with a sign "," e.g. waitjaatwei instead of waiţātwei etc.;
- all consonants become soft if they stand in position before front vowels (e, ē, i, ī), e.g. pelks, keptun, ni, tītis, etc.
Notes:
* The sound L is always soft in modern Prussian pronunciation, so Lithuanians must remember that complex la should be always pronounced like Lith. le, lia, e.g. Pr. labban, lamtun, laītawis, etc.
* The sound R should be pronounced as a tongue-point trill, i.e. rather like r of other languages of Eastern Europe (Lithuanian, Russian, etc.) than like r of English, French or standard German.
* The sound W should be pronounced like English w, but I don't see a big problem if someone pronounces it like simple v.
* Š corresponds to English sh; this sound is always soft.
* S corresponds to English s and is always voiceless, while [s]Z[/s] corresponds to English (not German!) z and is always voiced.
* J = like y in the word year.
* C = German z.
* Č = English ch, [s]Ž[/s] = French j, but these two sounds are very rare in Prussian.
* Letters h, v, x, y are used only when citing foreign proper names.
* Other consonants not mentioned yet that don't need specific explanation, in my opinion: b, d, g, k, m, n, p, t. If the pronunciation of them is unclear, please do not hesitate to ask me.
* There are no double consonant sounds in Prussian. Double consonant letters, e.g. ss in word wissan, indicate the stress position in a word (see further) and are pronounced like simple consonants (wissan = [wisan] in the above mentioned case).