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, <t>11 |
| Т | т | /tee/ | <t> |
| У | у | /ow/ | <o>12, <ou>13, <ow>13, <u>12 |
| Ў | ў | /wee/ | <u>7, <w> |
| Ф | ф | /ef/ | <f> |
| Х | х | /kay/ | <ch>8, <gh>14 |
| Һ | һ | /hay/ | <h> |
| Ч | ч | /chee/ | <ch>15 |
| Ш | ш | /shay/ | <ch>11, <sh> |
| Э | э | /ee/ | <e>16 |
| Ю | ю | /yoo/ | <io>, <u>17, <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> |
Long and Short Vowels
Just as in the Latin system of writing, most vowels have both a long and short pronunciation, the choice between the two of which is indicated by surrounding letters. The Cyrillic system uses only single and double consonants to indicate whether a vowel is long or short, as the Latin system does word internally. Silent E's are not used. In some cases a doubled consonant in the Cyrillic system will also be doubled in the Latin system, but there are many instances in which it will not. These situations are addressed in the section on converting Cyrillic to Latin. If a vowel is followed by multiple consonant sounds, none of them are doubled, even if the preceding vowel is short. There are also several consonants which are not doubled under any circumstances. These are Ѳ, Ҥ, Ч and Ш. Consonants are also not doubled in the creation of compound words.
Converting from Latin to Cyrillic
Notes
- When pronounced /oe/.
- When pronounced /g/.
- After a consonant.
- When pronounced /j/.
- When pronounced /z/ or /zh/.
- When pronounced as vowel.
- When pronounced as consonant.
- When pronounced /k/.
- When pronounced /ah/.
- When pronounced /s/.
- When pronounced /sh/.
- 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/.
