This article is a stub.
The Xi’an alphabet ( Xi'an: kẽxÌN (Proper); literally script/alphabetic letter; ) is a writing system to write the Xi’an language.
The alphabet has over 200 "letters", symbols or glyphs. Each letter has more than one form (basic, block, corner). Kyexiin has also 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 and form 'words'. The block format is always:
- V, Vowel
- VC, Vowel - Consonant
- CV, Consonant - Vowel
- CVC, Consonant - Vowel - Consonant
Therefore some words can be written differently. Xi’an tries to minimize the number of blocks.
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.Template:RSI
Components
Vowels
| SRX | Basic | Block | Corner | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | á | à | [a] |
| Ā | A | Á | À | [ɑː] - long a - in father /fɑː.ðə*/ |
| Â | % | [ʌ] in but /bʌt/, cut /kʌt/ | ||
| O | o | ó | ò | [ɛ] in set /sɛt/, net /nɛt/, met /mɛt/ |
| Ō | O | Ó | Ò | [ɛː] - long ɛ - |
| E | e | é | è | [i] |
| Ē | E | É | È | [iː] - long i - in spree /spɹiː/ |
| I | i | í | ì | [o] |
| II | I | Í | Ì | [oː] - long o - |
| U | u | ú | ù | [u], in some cases /w/ |
| Ū | U | Ú | Ù | [uː] |
Consonants
| SRX | Basic | Block | Corner | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | p | |||
| K | k | K | ||
| T | t | |||
| S | s | |||
| H | h | |||
| M | m | M | ||
| N | n | N | ||
| NG | g | G | ||
| TH | þ | Þ | ||
| L | l | L | ||
| R | r | R | ||
| THL | ð | Ð | ||
| X | x | |||
| XY | X | |||
| CH | ç | |||
| KL | ļ | |||
| KR | ŗ | |||
| Y | ĩ | j |