The Seven Altars of Dusarra

NOTES ON LANGUAGE AND PRONUNCIATION

The reader should remember throughout that the characters do not speak English, but a language which, if pressed for a name, they would call "Eramman." All dialogue must be considered as translations from the Eramman, and all names as approximate transcriptions. An attempt has been made to keep all names as easily pronounceable for speakers of English as possible; since Eramman is an IndoEuropean tongue, reasonable accuracy is possible as well.

However, a rough guide to pronunciation seems advisable.

Accents: There are two different rules to be followed in regard to where stress falls; in Nekutta (including Dыsarra), Orgыl, Amag, Tadumuri, Mara, and almost all of Eramma, the accent always falls on the next-to-last syllable in any word, regardless of how many syllables there may be. In Orыn, the Northern Waste, the Yprian Coast, and in personal names but no other words in parts of northern Eramma (including Skelleth), the accent always falls on the first syllable, regardless of the length of the word. Thus Garth, being from the Northern Waste, pronounces the name of his home city OR-duh-nin, while the people of Skelleth or Dыsarra would pronounce it Or-DOO-nin.

The Plain of Derbarok, lying as it does between Eramma and Orыn, has no set rule; its inhabitants vary their pronunciation at whim, and there is no consensus as to whether the correct pronunciation is DER-ba-rock or Der-BAR-ock.

Phonetics: The Eramman language has seven basic vowels, which are represented in transcription by A, E, I, Y, O, U, and Ь; most have two pronunciations, depending on whether they occur in an accented syllable or an unaccented one.

A is always pronounced like the a in era.

E in an unaccented syllable is pronounced like the e in get.

E in an accented syllable is pronounced like the й in passй.

I in an unaccented syllable is pronounced like the i in bit.

I in an accented syllable is pronounced like the ee in bee.

Y is a sound which does not occur in English; regardless of accent it is pronounced like the Russian bI; best approximated as something between the accented and unaccented I.

O is always pronounced like the o in got; there is no long O in Eramman.

U in an unaccented syllable is pronounced like the oo in book.

U in an accented syllable is pronounced like the oo in boot.

Ь in an unaccented syllable is pronounced as in German; in an accented syllable it falls somewhere between the German ь and o.

The use of a circumflex indicates that a vowel in an unaccented syllable is pronounced as if accented (e.g., Orыn and Dыsarra, pronounced OR-oon and Doo-SAR-ra). One-syllable words are always considered accented, but a circumflex may sometimes appear as a reminder.

Diphthongs are common in Eramman, especially AI, pronounced like the English word "I," and EU, which does not occur in most forms of English, but closely resembles the Cockney pronunciation of the long O-sound.

Consonants are pronounced much as in English, except R, which is trilled or "flipped" slightly (not rolled). The following combinations should be noted: TH is always as in thin, never as in there.

DH represents the voiced th as in there.

BH represents a sound somewhere between b and v, as in the Castilian Spanish pronunciation of either.

PH represents a sound somewhere between p and f; in the combination P'H the apostrophe has no sound or value whatsoever except to indicate that the P and H are both pronounced individually and not as a single phoneme. P'hul is one syllable.

CH is pronounced as in church.

J is pronounced as in jar.

G is always as in get, never as in gem.

KH represents a voiceless gutteral, like the German ch in ach.

GH represents a voiced gutteral; it sounds rather like gargling.

SH is pronounced as in sheep.

ZH is pronounced like z in azure.

A final note on the names of the gods: Eramman is a declined language with seven cases; all nouns will ordinarily have an ending indicating their case and what part of a sentence they are. Names, however, do not have endings, ever. The names of the gods are, for the most part, simply words indicating their provenance with endings removed. Thus aghadye, the nominative form of the word for "loathing," becomes Aghad, and bheluye, meaning "destruction," becomes Bheleu (yes, it should be bheleuye or Bhelu; a few centuries earlier it was bheleuye, but pronunciations change).

Native speakers would not find this confusing, nor tend to identify a god too strongly with the single trait his name represents, because they are accustomed to names with root meanings that may not have much to do with the things named. For examples of similar attitudes among speakers of English, consider the names Grace and Victor; no one assumes that every woman named Grace is in fact graceful, or that every man named Victor is a successful fighter. How many people, upon hearing the name New York, even remember that there is an old York?

Furthermore, many of the root-words have changed meaning or dropped out of common usage; regvosye, meaning an unwillingness to understand, is extremely archaic, and no longer used as the ordinary word for blindness. That is just one example of many.