A Woman of the Iron People

Appendix A

A note on pronunciation

I was raised on the Wade-Giles system of transliterating Chinese, but have converted to Pinyin in this novel.

Lixia is pronounced Lee-sha.

Yunqi is pronounced Yoon-chee.

The word zi, which means “sage,” is pronounced zee.

Zhuang Zi (Chuang-tzu in the old system) is pronounced Juang-zee.

The rest of the Chinese names are pronounced approximately the way they look.

The native i, like the Pinyin i, is long.

The native a is usually pronounced ah as in father.

Nia is pronounced Nee-ah.

In is pronounced inn.

Ar is pronounced as in car and far.

Inzara is pronounced Innzarah.

Ai is pronounced as in hay.

U is pronounced oo.

Nahusai is pronounced Nahoosay.

E is usually the vowel sound in air or care.

Gersu is pronounced Gairsoo.

O is the sound in Oh and Oklahoma.

Yohai is pronounced Yohay.

The sound spelled kh in the language of the Copper People is pronounced like the ch in Bach.

The natives all speak the language of gifts, but their pronunciation varies.

Nia can say g but not k. This is why her version of Derek’s name is Deragu. There is no sh in her language. Lixia becomes Li-sa. The oracle can say k and sh, but not p. The native animal that Nia calls osupa is osuba to him.

All the native languages are accented. Usually the accent falls on the first syllable.

There are three native gestures that could be translated as “yes.”

One is the gesture of affirmation, which means “yes, that is so.”

Another is the gesture of agreement, which means “yes, I agree with you.”

The third is the gesture of assent, which means “yes, that should, can, or will be done.”