Irminfä - The alphabet

Ti irisärtä - The alphabet

The Irminfä alphabet has 23 letters as presented below:

A a
Ä ä
B b
D d
E e
Ë ë
F f
G g
H h
I i
K k
L l
M m
N n
O o
P p
R r
S s
T t
U u
V v
Y y
Z z

Pronunciation guide:

Irminfä spelling is highly phonetic. The letters above are pronounced in a fashion generalised from Spanish, Italian, Modern Greek and Finnish (if you get the idea), i.e. vowels are pure, voiceless consonants are unaspirated, l never becomes dark, and r is realised either as a flap or as a trill.

The Irminfä h, however, is pharyngealised before ä, pronounced like the Arabic ح. So the combination hä sounds like the Arabic حا, only shorter; it becomes a palatal fricative before ë and i so the combinations hë and hi sound like the Greek χε and χι.

Letter k, in the same way as h, is palatalised before ë and i, sounding like the Greek κ before these sounds.

Letter ë represents a [je] sound.

Letter y is a palatal approximant with a certain degree of frication. It is similar to the palatalised Greek γ but only weeker.

Double consonants should be reflected on pronunciation, in the Italian, or the Finnish, Turkish, Arabic, way.