Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

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Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Kshaard » 2013-02-10, 18:27

Out of all the standard letters in our alphabet, I have found that <q> is the one with the least consistent pronunciation between languages. If your conlang contains the letter, post below with its IPA equivalent.

Juḑitase: standard [q], northern [χ], southern [k]
Vhi'ur: [ʁ]
Ptùng: [ʃ]
Stocqéej: [kw]
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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2013-02-10, 19:58

My conlang Miwonša does not contain this letter, but if a "q" appeared in a loanword from a natlang, native speakers would probably simply imitate the pronunciation of the original word.

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Saaropean » 2013-02-11, 0:47

Very few of my conlangs use Q:
  • Çirae: [k]
  • Raen: [q]
  • Çirae-Raen (common ancestor of Çirae and Raen): [q], between vowels [k]
  • Proto-Chera-Lön (don't remember whether this is related to Çirae-Raen): [q]

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Irkan » 2013-02-11, 8:16

Feerikya: [kʷ]

I don't have any other language with this letter.

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Ashucky » 2013-02-11, 11:52

Only one of my conlangs has the letter <q>:

Tainyren: /d͡z/, allophonically also [d͡ʑ]
Slovenščina (sl)English (en)Italiano (it)漢語 (zh)Español (es)Suomi (fi)Svenska (sv)日本語 (ja)فارسی (fa)Nešili (hit)
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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Emandir » 2013-02-13, 8:12

I generally use Q fo /ŋ/.
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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby NightBreeze » 2013-02-17, 8:21

Atävia's Q is pronounced [kw]. :mrgreen:
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[Please, correct my english if I say something wrong!]

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby hashi » 2013-02-17, 9:18

/ɕ/
(en-nz)(ja)(sv)(it)(mi)(et)

Sono ancora qui (a volte), ma probabilmente non ti voglio parlare.

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Iparxi_Zoi » 2013-02-20, 0:07

It is used only with qu, pronounced /kw/.
Native/Mis lenguas maternas: [flag=español mexicano (Mexican Spanish)]es-MX[/flag] [flag=español (Spanish)]es[/flag] American English (en-US) English (en)
Advanced (I hope)/Espero que no se me olvide: [flag=français (French)]fr[/flag]
In love with/Me encantan: [flag=ελληνικά (Greek)]el[/flag] [flag=português (Portuguese)]pt[/flag]
Also intested in/También me interesarían: [flag=العربية (Arabic)]ar[/flag] [flag=italiano (Italian)]it[/flag] [flag=Türkçe (Turkish)]tr[/flag]

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Freebooter » 2013-02-21, 23:19

In my Edelenisch "Q", like all the alphebet other than "J" (which is pronounced as in French) is pronounced as in German. So "Q" is pronouned as "koo" and is a "K" sound." And "Qu" is, as in German, a "Kv" sound, like German "Quetsch" (to crush, etc.) so is pronounced "Kvetsch"
FB

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Koko » 2013-12-02, 5:33

In Kōnen and Phei'l [fe'kwɪl] <q> is [k] same with kh, kq, ck/kk, and sometimes the digraph qu- will make the [k]. I really love the k/[k]

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Kshaard » 2013-12-02, 21:03

What's with all the different orthographical representations of [k]? Surely, as this is just a romanisation of the language, it should have the least complex orthography possible (or wanted).
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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby AlexandreMsx » 2013-12-03, 9:54

My conlang is still under development and is pronounced as /kʷ/

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Koko » 2013-12-03, 23:56

Kshaard wrote:What's with all the different orthographical representations of [k]? Surely, as this is just a romanisation of the language, it should have the least complex orthography possible (or wanted).


I don't see a problem. Modern Greek has five representatives for /I/, is it not okay for my conlang to have five for /k/? If a natlang has more than one rep., I think it's perfectly reasonable for a conlang to use the same techniques. English does the same. Ei, ie, y, eigh, ae, ea, ee, ey, and oe. Note the these may also have other uses other than /i/. Don't mean for this to sound rude, but I think the "think before you speak" proverb strongly applies here.

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Dormouse559 » 2013-12-04, 1:03

Both Greek and English have conservative orthographies, which haven't changed much despite centuries or even millennia of sound changes. This can be a justification for a conlang to have an unusual writing system, but this is mainly restricted to the native writing system. If the Latin alphabet, for example, isn't the language's native alphabet or was relatively recently applied to it, then there's little reason for Greek- or English-like complications.
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Koko

Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Koko » 2013-12-04, 4:43

If they are transliterated with different spellings for the same sound, wouldn't it be like the same as the uses for natlangs' many representatives? (For distinction between words for example, or variety).

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Dormouse559 » 2013-12-04, 5:38

Distinguishing between words can be a use, though again, this is mainly found in a native script. There are many homophones in Chinese, but pinyin doesn't make an effort to differentiate them, being just a Romanization.

Variety seems an odd thing to consider, particularly since it's so subjective. When does an orthography become "varied"? And why include excess letters? It can only make reading and writing more difficult. Hawaiian has a very small phoneme inventory, and accordingly, its Romanization has a small number of letters.

Odd spellings can arise when a language's speakers use a writing system developed for a language with a very different phonology. Take any Romance language. As the languages' phonologies have become more complex than the original Latin, they've had to develop digraphs, trigraphs and diacritics to adequately represent pronunciation.
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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Koko » 2013-12-04, 6:32

Then I should take away some of the digraphs in my pool? Distinction is needed in Kōnen and Phei'l; hence why in Phei'l, there is a letter for c and sh, both make [ʃ], and f and ph, used much the same as in English. Kōnen is like an alpha-alphasyllabic(it has some alphasyllabic letters)while ille est a full on alphasyllabic. Does that help with my argument?

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Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Dormouse559 » 2013-12-04, 7:05

Koko wrote:Then I should take away some of the digraphs in my pool?
If they don't have a purpose or a historical/etymological justification? Probably.

Koko wrote:f and ph, used much the same as in English.
<ph> for Greek loanwords and <f> for all the rest?

Koko wrote:Kōnen is like an alpha-alphasyllabic(it has some alphasyllabic letters)while ille est a full on alphasyllabic.
Sorry, but I don't understand this sentence. :?
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Koko

Re: Pronunciation of <Q> in conlangs

Postby Koko » 2013-12-04, 7:41

<f> for all, none for Greek. Guess that wasn't a very good example without IPA stuff.

If you're wondering what I mean by "alpha-alphasyllabic," I mean that for the characters that represent syllables(like an, az/ax, and ya), there is generally a similarity between them through either the vowel or consonant(in Kōnen's case, it's in terms of both) and the other characters are an alphabet(each letter represents one sound value). It's 'alphabet' and 'alphasyllabic' as a contraction, I think. If it's ille est, this is Latin referring to the latter(so Phei'l), which is technically "that is," rather than "this is"(the former).


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