Letters
Vowels
Arcadia has five vowel phonemes: /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, and /u/. Each vowel occurs in both stressed and unstressed syllables.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
The vowel phonemes and graphemes correspond as follows:
| Letter | IPA | English Approximation |
|---|---|---|
| i | /i/ | ship |
| e | /e/ | set |
| a | /a/ | hat |
| o | /o/ | cross |
| u | /u/ | blue |
Consonants
Arcadia has a more complex consonant inventory than its vowel inventory. All Arcadian consonants are pulmonic.
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | ||||
| Sibilant Fricative | s z | ʃ ʒ | |||||
| Non-sibilant Fricative | f v | θ ð | x ɣ | ||||
| Affricate | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | ||||||
| Tap/Flap | ɾ | ||||||
| Approximant | j | ||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | ʎ |
The letters of the Arcadian alphabet and their corresponding IPA symbols are as follows:
| Letter | IPA | English Approximation |
|---|---|---|
| b | /b/ | aback |
| c | /k/ | kite |
| d | /d/ | dog |
| f | /f/ | fish |
| g | /g/ | get |
| j | /j/ | yes |
| l | /l/ | lamp |
| m | /m/ | man |
| n | /n/ | not |
| p | /p/ | pun |
| r | /ɾ/ | Scottish very |
| s | /s/ | sun |
| t | /t/ | tap |
| v | /v/ | van |
| z | /z/ | zoo |
| ch | /x/ | Scottish loch |
| dh | /ð/ | this |
| gh | /ɣ/ | Spanish agua |
| sh | /ʃ/ | ship |
| th | /θ/ | think |
| zh | /ʒ/ | measure |
| dx | /d͡ʒ/ | jam |
| tx | /t͡ʃ/ | chip |
| ly | /ʎ/ | Italian gli |
| ny | /ɲ/ | onion |
Gemination
All consonants and digraphs can be geminated. Gemination is represented by doubling the letter in the orthography. In case of digraphs, only the final letter is doubled.
Example
- mm is pronounced /mː/
- pp is pronounced /pː/
- ghh is pronounced /ɣː/