The Xi'an alphabet ( Xi'an: kyexiin (Proper); literally script / alphabetic letter; ) is a writing system to write the Xi'an language.
The alphabet has over 200 "letters", symbols or glyphs. A letter is referred to as a kyexiin, which translates as "written symbol" Each letter has more than one form (basic, block, corner). The Xi'an writing system also has a hyphen, 'comma' (epentheses and pause), quotation and a period (full stop) mark. Proper nouns are also marked in the Xi'an script. There are a special glyph for vowel muting and a glyph equal to the ampersand (&).
Some glyphs can occur in different shapes or variants. Glyphs are grouped into blocks which form individual syllables. Often a single syllable represents an 'elemental' concept in the language, and is thus called a tai ( Xi'an: tai (Proper); ). Multiple tai can combine to form compound words. The block format is always:
- V, Vowel
- VC, Vowel - Consonant
- CV, Consonant - Vowel
- CVC, Consonant - Vowel - Consonant
Only a certain set of consonants (denoted below as those that have a 'corner form') are permitted to come at the end of a syllable. This applies to both CVC and VC syllables. Occasionally, and particularly within proper names, syllables will be compressed into a minimised number of blocks. An example of this is the word Xi'an, which in-lore has historically been written as ( Xi'an: 9xi2an (Proper); ) but is now most commonly written as ( Xi'an: 9xyan2 (Proper); ).
It is important to note that pitch diacritics can fundamentally change the meaning of a word. It can be sometimes very tricky to distinguish these diacritics from each other.[1]
Components
Vowels
SRX | Basic | Block | Corner | Simple pronunciation | IPA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | a8 | a | 77a | a in father | ɑ ( listen) |
Ā | aa8 | aa | 77aa | extended a in father | ɑː ( listen) |
 | â | c in but and cut | ə ( listen)/ʌ ( listen) | ||
O | o8 | o | 77o | o in cone and bone | o ( listen) |
Ō | oo8 | oo | 77oo | extended o in cone and bone | oː ( listen) |
E | e8 | e | 77e | e in bet, set and let | ɛ ( listen) |
Ē | ee8 | ee | 77ee | ay in day, say and slay | eː ( listen) / e⁀ɪ |
I | i8 | i | 77i | ee in spree only slightly shorter | i ( listen) |
II | ii8 | ii | 77ii | ee in spree | iː ( listen) |
U | u8 | u | 77u | u in flu | u ( listen) |
Ū | uu8 | uu | 77u | extended u in flu | uː ( listen) |
Consonants
SRX | Basic | Block | Corner | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|
P | p | [p] ( listen) | ||
K | k | 7k | [k] ( listen) | |
T | t | [t] ( listen) | ||
S | s | [s] ( listen) | ||
H | h | [h] ( listen) | ||
M | m | 7m | [m] ( listen) in him /ˈhɪm/, alt: /əm/ | |
N | n | 7n | [n] ( listen) | |
NG | ng | 7g | [ŋ] ( listen) in Song /sɒŋ/ alt: /sɔŋ/, /sɑŋ/ and singing /ˈsɪŋɪŋ/ | |
TH | th | 7th | [θ] ( listen) or [ð] ( listen) n with /wɪð/, thin /ˈθɪn/ | |
L | l | 7l | [l] ( listen) in tell /tɛl/ or /tɛɫ/ , lit /ˈlɪt/ ; in dialect: [r] ( listen) | |
R | r | 7r | [ɾ] ( listen) or [r] ( listen) in ital. 'rosa' /ˈrɔ.za/ | |
THL | thl or thl6 (rare) | [θ] ( listen) + [l] ( listen) = with love | ||
X | x | [ʂ] ( listen) | ||
XY | xy | [ʃ] ( listen) | ||
CH | ch | [ʈʂ] ( listen) | ||
CHY | No discret glyph. CH in "Cheat" | |||
KL | kl | /kl/ | ||
KR | kr | /kɾ/ or /kr/ | ||
Y | 7y | [j] ( listen) in PYU /pjuː/ , KYU /kjuː/, HYUN /hjuːn/, NYU /njuː/ or /nju/, mutant /ˈmjuːtənt/ or /ˈmjuʔn̩(t)/ |
Diphtongs
SRX | Basic | Block | Corner | Variant | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AO | ao8 | ao | 77ao | /ɑo/ | |
ĀO | aao8 | aao | 77aao | /ɑːo/ | |
OA | oa8 | oa | 77oa | /oɑ/ | |
ŌA | ooa8 | ooa | 77ooa | /oːɑ/ | |
AI | ai8 | ai | 77ai | ai6 | /ɑi/ |
ĀI | aai | aai | 77aai | aai6 | /ɑːi/ |
EA | ea8 | ea | 77ea | ea6 | /ɛɑ/ |
U-Diphtongs
SRX | Basic | Block | Corner | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|
UA | ua8 | ua | 77ua | /wɑ/ |
UĀ | uaa8 | uaa | 77uaa | /wɑː/ |
UO | uo8 | uo | 77uo | /wo/ |
UŌ | uoo8 | uoo | 77uo | /woː/ |
VU | vu8 | vu | /vu/βu/ - Unclear whether this is the bilabial fricative or the labiodental fricative | |
UE | ue8 | ue | 77ue | /wɛ/ |
UĒ | uee8 | uee | 7uee | /wɛː/ |
UI | ui8 | ui | 7ui | /wi/ |
UII | uii8 | ui | 7ui | /wiː/ |
UAO | uao8 | uao | 77uao | /wɑo/ |
UĀO | uaao8 | uao | 77uao | /wɑːo/ |
UOA | uoa8 | uoa | 77uoa | /woɑ/ |
UŌA | uooa8 | uooa | 77uooa | /woːɑ/ |
UAI | uai8 | uai | 77uai | /wɑi/ |
UĀI | uaai8 | uai | 77uai | /wɑːi/ |
UEA | uea | /wɛɑ/ |
Y-Diphtongs
SRX | Basic | Block | Corner | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|
YA | ya8 | ya | 77ya | /ja/ |
YĀ | yaa8 | yaa | 77yaa | /ja:/ |
YO | yo8 | yo | 77yo | /jo/ |
YŌ | yoo8 | yoo | 77yoo | /jo:/ |
YU | yu8 | yu | 77yu | /ju/ |
YŪ | yuu8 | yuu | 77yuu | /ju:/ |
YE | ye8 | ye | 77ye | /yɛ/ |
YĒ | yee8 | yee | 77yee | /yɛ:/ |
YI | yi8 | yi | 77yi | /ji/ |
YII | yii8 | yii | 77yii | /jiː/ |
YAO | yao8 | yao | 77yao | /jɑo/ |
YĀO | yaao8 | yaao | 77yaao | /jɑːo/ |
YOA | yoa8 | yoa | 77yoa | /joɑ/ |
YŌA | yooa8 | yooa | 77yooa | /joːɑ/ |
YAI | yai8 | yai | 77yai | /jɑi/ |
YĀI | yaai8 | yaai | 77yaai | /jɑːi/ |
YEA | yea | /jɛɑ/ |
Special glyphs
SRX | Glyph | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|
UTH | uth | |
E'E | e2e | |
0 | (Vowel muting) |
Numbers
SRX | Basic | Pronunciation | SRX | Basic | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | ||
2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | ||
3 | 3 | 8 | 8 | ||
4 | 4 | 9 | 9 | ||
5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Punctuation
Symbol | Notes |
---|---|
. | Full stop |
, | Pause |
) | Epenthesis |
? | Question mark |
" " | Quotation marks |
Pitch and 'Capitalisation'
These examples all use the character a as the example.
Symbol | Notes |
---|---|
9a | Proper name, i.e. Capitalisation |
a1 | Low pitch |
a3 | High pitch |
a2 | Normal Fall |
4a5 | Normal Rise |
4a3 | Rise-to-high |
a2 a1 | Fall-to-low |
4a2 | Rise-to-fall |
See also
References