Xi'an alphabet

The Xi'an alphabet ( Xi'an: kyexiin(kyexiin) (Proper); literally script / alphabetic letter; ) is a writing system to write the Xi'an language.

The alphabet has over 200 "letters", symbols or glyphs. A letter is referred to as a kyexiin, which translates as "written symbol" Each letter has more than one form (basic, block, corner). The Xi'an writing system also has a hyphen, 'comma' (epentheses and pause), quotation and a period (full stop) mark. Proper nouns are also marked in the Xi'an script. There are a special glyph for vowel muting and a glyph equal to the ampersand (&).

Some glyphs can occur in different shapes or variants. Glyphs are grouped into blocks which form individual syllables. Often a single syllable represents an 'elemental' concept in the language, and is thus called a tai ( Xi'an: tai (Proper); ). Multiple tai can combine to form compound words. The block format is always:

V, Vowel
VC, Vowel - Consonant
CV, Consonant - Vowel
CVC, Consonant - Vowel - Consonant

Only a certain set of consonants (denoted below as those that have a 'corner form') are permitted to come at the end of a syllable. This applies to both CVC and VC syllables. Occasionally, and particularly within proper names, syllables will be compressed into a minimised number of blocks. An example of this is the word Xi'an, which in-lore has historically been written as ( Xi'an: 9xi2an(Xi'an) (Proper); ) but is now most commonly written as ( Xi'an: 9xyan2(Xy'an) (Proper); ).

It is important to note that pitch diacritics can fundamentally change the meaning of a word. It can be sometimes very tricky to distinguish these diacritics from each other.^[1]

Components

Vowels

SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Simple pronunciation	IPA
A	a8	a	77a	a in father	ɑ ( listen)
Ā	aa8	aa	77aa	extended a in father	ɑː ( listen)
Â			â	c in but and cut	ə ( listen)/ʌ ( listen)
O	o8	o	77o	o in cone and bone	o ( listen)
Ō	oo8	oo	77oo	extended o in cone and bone	oː ( listen)
E	e8	e	77e	e in bet, set and let	ɛ ( listen)
Ē	ee8	ee	77ee	ay in day, say and slay	eː ( listen) / e⁀ɪ
I	i8	i	77i	ee in spree only slightly shorter	i ( listen)
II	ii8	ii	77ii	ee in spree	iː ( listen)
U	u8	u	77u	u in flu	u ( listen)
Ū	uu8	uu	77u	extended u in flu	uː ( listen)

Consonants

SRX	Basic	Corner	Pronunciation
P	p		[p] ( listen)
K	k	7k	[k] ( listen)
T	t		[t] ( listen)
S	s		[s] ( listen)
H	h		[h] ( listen)
M	m	7m	[m] ( listen) in him /ˈhɪm/, alt: /əm/
N	n	7n	[n] ( listen)
NG	ng	7g	[ŋ] ( listen) in Song /sɒŋ/ alt: /sɔŋ/, /sɑŋ/ and singing /ˈsɪŋɪŋ/
TH	th	7th	[θ] ( listen) or [ð] ( listen) n with /wɪð/, thin /ˈθɪn/
L	l	7l	[l] ( listen) in tell /tɛl/ or /tɛɫ/ , lit /ˈlɪt/ ; in dialect: [r] ( listen)
R	r	7r	[ɾ] ( listen) or [r] ( listen) in ital. 'rosa' /ˈrɔ.za/
THL	thl or thl6 (rare)		[θ] ( listen) + [l] ( listen) = with love
X	x		[ʂ] ( listen)
XY	xy		[ʃ] ( listen)
CH	ch		[ʈʂ] ( listen)
CHY			No discret glyph. CH in "Cheat"
KL	kl		/kl/
KR	kr		/kɾ/ or /kr/
Y	7y		[j] ( listen) in PYU /pjuː/ , KYU /kjuː/, HYUN /hjuːn/, NYU /njuː/ or /nju/, mutant /ˈmjuːtənt/ or /ˈmjuʔn̩(t)/

Diphtongs

SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Variant	Pronunciation
AO	ao8	ao	77ao		/ɑo/
ĀO	aao8	aao	77aao		/ɑːo/
OA	oa8	oa	77oa		/oɑ/
ŌA	ooa8	ooa	77ooa		/oːɑ/
AI	ai8	ai	77ai	ai6	/ɑi/
ĀI	aai	aai	77aai	aai6	/ɑːi/
EA	ea8	ea	77ea	ea6	/ɛɑ/

U-Diphtongs

SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Pronunciation
UA	ua8	ua	77ua	/wɑ/
UĀ	uaa8	uaa	77uaa	/wɑː/
UO	uo8	uo	77uo	/wo/
UŌ	uoo8	uoo	77uo	/woː/
VU	vu8	vu		/vu/βu/ - Unclear whether this is the bilabial fricative or the labiodental fricative
UE	ue8	ue	77ue	/wɛ/
UĒ	uee8	uee	7uee	/wɛː/
UI	ui8	ui	7ui	/wi/
UII	uii8	ui	7ui	/wiː/
UAO	uao8	uao	77uao	/wɑo/
UĀO	uaao8	uao	77uao	/wɑːo/
UOA	uoa8	uoa	77uoa	/woɑ/
UŌA	uooa8	uooa	77uooa	/woːɑ/
UAI	uai8	uai	77uai	/wɑi/
UĀI	uaai8	uai	77uai	/wɑːi/
UEA		uea		/wɛɑ/

Y-Diphtongs

SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Pronunciation
YA	ya8	ya	77ya	/ja/
YĀ	yaa8	yaa	77yaa	/ja:/
YO	yo8	yo	77yo	/jo/
YŌ	yoo8	yoo	77yoo	/jo:/
YU	yu8	yu	77yu	/ju/
YŪ	yuu8	yuu	77yuu	/ju:/
YE	ye8	ye	77ye	/yɛ/
YĒ	yee8	yee	77yee	/yɛ:/
YI	yi8	yi	77yi	/ji/
YII	yii8	yii	77yii	/jiː/
YAO	yao8	yao	77yao	/jɑo/
YĀO	yaao8	yaao	77yaao	/jɑːo/
YOA	yoa8	yoa	77yoa	/joɑ/
YŌA	yooa8	yooa	77yooa	/joːɑ/
YAI	yai8	yai	77yai	/jɑi/
YĀI	yaai8	yaai	77yaai	/jɑːi/
YEA		yea		/jɛɑ/

Special glyphs

SRX	Glyph	Pronunciation
UTH	uth
E'E	e2e
	0	(Vowel muting)

Numbers

SRX	Basic	SRX	Basic
1	1	6	6
2	2	7	7
3	3	8	8
4	4	9	9
5	5	0	0

Punctuation

Symbol	Notes
.	Full stop
,	Pause
)	Epenthesis
?	Question mark
" "	Quotation marks

Pitch and 'Capitalisation'

These examples all use the character a as the example.

Symbol	Notes
9a	Proper name, i.e. Capitalisation
a1	Low pitch
a3	High pitch
a2	Normal Fall
4a5	Normal Rise
4a3	Rise-to-high
a2 a1	Fall-to-low
4a2	Rise-to-fall

References

↑ An Overview of the Xi'an Language for Diplomats

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[1] An Overview of the Xi'an Language for Diplomats

[1]