Document:Novic Orthography
While Novmir uses the English language, it writes it using a system based on the Cyrillic rather than the Latin alphabet. Such writing can be seen in places such as official government documents and the royal coat of arms. Like the Latin English alphabet, this spelling system is based on the pronunciation of the earlier rather than modern English language. As such the values of some letters differ significantly from their usual values in the Cyrillic alphabet. However, this also means that more words can be converted from Latin to Cyrillic one-to-one. This document is intended to give the reader a basic familiarity with the alphabet and how to use it.
Letters
The Novmir alphabet contains thirty-four individual letters. Most of these represent a single consonant or vowel sound, but some represent a Y-sound followed by a vowel. Like the Latin English alphabet, some letters may have different pronunciations in different contexts. What these contexts are and how they affect pronunciation are discussed in greater detail in the following sections.
The Novmir alphabet is given in its entire in the following chart. The names of letters are given using phonetic spelling according to general English spelling conventions. The Latin column gives the letter's Latin equivalents. If a Latin equivalent contains more than one letter, the Cyrillic letter only replaces them when they are pronounced as a single sound. Instances of equivalence which depend on context are given in this document's footnotes and discussed in greater detail under the section on converting from Latin to Cyrillic. This chart is not intended to be comprehensive, and exceptions to the rules listed here may exist.
| Majuscule | Minuscule | Name | Latin |
|---|---|---|---|
| А | а | /ay/ | <a> |
| Ӕ | ӕ | /hee/ | <ea> |
| Å | å | /oe/ | <o>1, <oa> |
| Б | б | /bee/ | <b> |
| В | в | /vee/ | <v> |
| Г | г | /gee/ | <g>2, <gh>2, <gu> |
| Д | д | /dee/ | <d> |
| Е | е | /yee/ | <e>3, <ye> |
| Ѳ | ѳ | /eth/ | <th> |
| Ж | ж | /jee/ | <g>4, <j> |
| З | з | /zee/ | <s>5, <z> |
| И | и | /ie/ | <i>, <y>6 |
| Й | й | /yoe/ | <y>7 |
| К | к | /koe/ | <c>8, <k>, |
| Л | л | /el/ | <l> |
| М | м | /em/ | <m> |
| Н | н | /en/ | <n> |
| Ҥ | ҥ | /eng/ | <ng> |
| О | о | /oo/ | <o>9, <oo> |
| П | п | /pee/ | <p> |
| Р | р | /ar/ | <r> |
| С | с | /es/ | <c>10, <s>10 |
| Т | т | /tee/ | <t> |
| У | у | /ow/ | <o>11, <ou>12, <ow>12, <u>11 |
| Ў | ў | /wee/ | <u>7, <w> |
| Ф | ф | /ef/ | <f> |
| Х | х | /kay/ | <ch>8, <gh>13 |
| Һ | һ | /hay/ | <h> |
| Ч | ч | /chee/ | <ch>14 |
| Ш | ш | /shay/ | <sh> |
| Э | э | /ee/ | <e>15 |
| Ю | ю | /yoo/ | <io>, <u>16, <yu> |
| Я | я | /yay/ | <ya> |
| Ԙ | ԙ | /shee/ | <yea> |
Digraphs
In some cases a pair of letters represent a single sound. All of these digraphs have an equivalent in the Latin system of spelling. However, not all Latin digraphs have a Cyrillic equivalent and are written using a single letter instead. These letters and what digraphs they replace are discussed in the previous section. Which Cyrillic digraph is appropriate is in some cases dependent on context. This complication is addressed in the document's footnotes and the section on converting from Latin to Cyrillic. This chart is not necessarily exhaustive, and exceptions may exist.
| Digraph | Latin |
|---|---|
| ай | <ai>, <ay> |
| аў | <au>, <aw> |
| ей | <ei>17, <ey> |
| еў | <eu>, <ew> |
| их | <igh> |
| ой | <oi>, <oy> |
| оў | <ou>1, <ow>1 |
| уй | <ui> |
| ўр | <wr> |
| һў | <wh> |
Converting from Latin to Cyrillic
Notes
- When pronounced /oe/.
- When pronounced /g/.
- After a consonant.
- When pronounced /j/.
- When pronounced /z/
- When pronounced as vowel.
- When pronounced as consonant.
- When pronounced /k/.
- When pronounced /ah/.
- When pronounced /s/.
- When pronounced /uh/.
- When pronounced /ow/.
- When pronounced /f/.
- When pronounced /ch/.
- At the start of a word or after a vowel.
- When pronounced /yoo/.
- When pronounced /ay/.
