Phonemic spellings of Ferengi sounds, words, and sentences are often shown beween slashes (/.../).
Mostly english words are used as examples, but for the vowels and foreign consonants, it's very hard, so I do my best.
Stops
Voiceless Labial /p/ -- [p]et, sto[p]
Dental /t/ -- [t]op, po[t]
Velar /k/ -- [k]ite, ba[ck]
Uvular /q/ -- Like /k/ but the back of the tongue
is against the uvula, rather than
the velum.
Glottal /?/ -- the stop in the middle of uh[-]oh
Also in Cockney or Scottish bo[tt]le
Voiced Labial /b/ -- [b]et, sta[b]
Dental /d/ -- [d]umb, ba[d]
Velar /g/ -- [g]ood, ba[g]
Voiced Implosive
Labial /V/ -- pronounced like /b/, but air is sucked
into the mouth at the instant that the
lips part.
Dental /C/ -- pronounced like /d/, but ingressive
Velar /X/ -- like /g/, but ingressive
Fricatives
Voiceless Bilabial /P/ -- like /f/, but with the lips
Labiodental /f/ -- [f]an, hal[f]; becomes /P/ after /p/
Interdental /T/ -- [th]in, ba[th]
Dental /s/ -- [s]top, pa[ss]
Palatal /S/ -- [sh]ine, bo[sh]
Velar /x/ -- Ba[ch] (composer, German)
[H]annukah (Jewish holiday)
Analogy: s:t::x:k
Glottal /h/ -- [h]ello, [h]alf
Voiced Bilabial /B/ -- like /v/ but with the lips
Labiodental /v/ -- [v]ery, hal[v]e; becomes /B/ after /b/
Interdental /D/ -- [th]is, ba[th]e
Dental /z/ -- [z]ip, spa[zz]
Palatal /Z/ -- a[z]ure, mea[s]ure, [j]our (French)
Velar /G/ -- [gh]amma, [g]yro (both Modern Greek)
Analogies: z:d::G:g, s:z::x:G
Uvular /R/ -- Pa[r]is (French), d[r]ei (German)
[gh]adha (Arabic for 'lunch')
Like /G/ but with tongue against
the uvula.
Glides
Voiced Labial /w/ -- [w]et, ho[w]
Palatal /j/ -- [y]ou, bo[y]
Retroflex Palatal /r/ -- [r]un (seldom used this way)
Liquids
Voiced Dental /l/ -- [l]ive, ta[ll]
Nasals
Voiced Labial /m/ -- [m]ud, spa[m]
Dental /n/ -- [n]ed, fa[n]
Velar /N/ -- ba[ng], si[ng], [ng]uyen
Plosive /M/ -- lips together or back of tongue against
velum with velum up, holding in air.
Then air is allowed to suddenly excape
through nose by lowering
of velum, while vocal chords vibrate.
Tense
Front Unrounded High /i/ -- b[ee]t, p[ee]k
Mid /e/ -- b[ai]t, p[ay]
Low /&/ -- b[a]t, c[a]t, p[a]ddle (not in Ferengi)
Rounded High /y/ -- m[ue]de (German), t[u] (French)
Say /i/, but with lips rounded for /u/.
Central Unrounded Mid /^/ -- b[u]t, m[u]d. In English, this
is allophonic with /@/, but here it is
strongly tense and distinct from /@/.
Retroflex /r/ -- [r]un, f[ur], wat[er]. These are
the American pronounciation. They
most be pronounced correctly, and
strongly retroflex. Used as a vowel.
Sounds just like "er" in American.
Back Rounded High /u/ -- m[oo]d, f[oo]d, g[oo]p
Mid /o/ -- b[oa]t, t[o]ne, tac[o]
(NOT Brittish /@U/)
Low [A] -- br[a], b[o]x (American)
(interchangable in Ferengi with /a/)
Lax
Front Unrounded High /I/ -- b[i]t, m[i]lk
Mid /E/ -- b[e]t, f[e]lt
Central Unrounded Mid [@] -- Schwa. Fers[e] (German), c[o]mputer
Low /a/ -- m[a]nn (German), t[a]sk (Brittish),
Back Unrounded High /U/ -- b[oo]k, f[oo]t
Mid /O/ -- b[o]y, w[a]ter (Brittish), m[o]re
Gap [-] -- This usually represents a syllable
boundary.
The following have letters in the ferengi alphabet but are no longer used.
After '=>' is what the sound has collapsed into in the modern tongue
Stops
Voiced Uvular /Q/ -- Voiced version of /q/ => /g/
Voiced Implosive
Uvular /K/ -- Ingressive verson of /Q/ => /X/
Fricatives
Voiceless Uvular /H/ -- Voiceless version of /R/ => /h/, /x/
Tense
Front Rounded Mid /%/ -- m[oe]gen (German), s[oeu]r (French)
=> /E/, /^/
Say /e/ or /E/ with lips rounded for /o/
Ferengi have the tendancy nasalize vowels. This means that the velum is
lowered so that air can resonate through the nasal cavities as well as in
the mouth. For example, in English, all vowels before nasal consonants
are nasalized. The nasalization in Ferengi has no effect on meaning, but
there is a pattern to it:
Front vowel + /n/ -- nasalize vowel and often drop /n/ Back vowel + /N/ -- nasalize vowel and often drop /N/ Rounded vowel + /m/ -- nasalize vowel, but don't drop /m/In most languages, vowels preceding nasal consonants must be nasalized in order for there to not be a drastic change in air flow from the oral-vowel to the nasal consonant. In Ferengi, though, this isn't always the case, but it produces a peculiar result. The Nasal Release listed above is an artifact of an oral vowel being pronounced before a nasal consonant. The sound /M/ is the result of the air flow being halted by the tongue on the mouth (reaching the point of articulation for the nasal consonant), then suddenly being released through the nose. The proper nasal consonant then follows that release, but it often overwhelmed by the sound of the nasal stop.
As an example, consider the case where you try to pronounce /an/ but with /a/ being an oral vowel. Due to changes in air flow, you actually get something that sounds like /adMn/. Similarly, /am/ becomes /abMm/ and /aN/ become /agMN/. The in order to distinguish this odd case of oral vowel before nasal consonant, the Ferengi write out the /M/ phoneme, but the do not write the following nasal consonant since it is overwhelmed by the change in airflow and not heard well. Instead, they write the voiced stop before the nasal stop to show the point of articulation and the nasal consonant can be inferred from that. This phonomenon results in the following correspondences:
/m/ - /bM/ /n/ - /dM/ /N/ - /gM/Long (double in length) vowels are written as the letter doubled.
The basic vowels used are a, o, i, u, ^, e, y, O, and r. The others are allophones of their corresponding tense vowels. Short (in length) vowels may be pronounced lax (/I/ for /i/, /U/ for /u/, /E/ for /e/), but long vowels are always as written. In cases where /i/, /u/, and /e/ are required, they are in free variation with /I/, /U/, and /E/, respectively. In cases where /I/, /U/, and /E/ are required, they are NOT interchangable with /i/, /u/, and /e/.
Dental consonants are similar to English Alveolar consonants, except the tongue is against the back of the teeth, rather than behind them.
In most languages, adjacent consonants of different voice value tend toward both voiced or voiceless. For example, in the word "dogs", the 's' is voiced, taking the voiced quality from the 'g'. Compare this to "cats", where 's' can't be voiced, and note that it is very hard to say "catz" with the 'z' maintaining its voiced quality. This process of taking a quality of a neighboring consonant is called assimilation. In Ferengi, this process could cause trouble since it would cause some meaning to be lost. An example of where is does happen is the imperative ending /vt/. Some times it is articulated as [vd] and some times as [ft], while some Ferengi do pronounce it as [v@t] some times. For places where this is a problem, Ferengi insert a schwa or gap so that phonemes can maintain their proper voice quality.
The system I use for transcribing the Ferengi language relies heavily on the actual Ferengi writing system. In the language there are places where schwa [@] and gap [-] are inserted that the Ferengi writing system leaves out and therefore so has my phonemic transcription method. Due to problem associated with this, I have decided to insert [-] and [@] into phonetic transcriptions. These phonetic transcriptions are shown in brackets ([...]), while the phonemic transcriptions will always be shown between slashes (/.../). Additionally, phonetic transcriptions will have [w], [j], [?], and [h] inserted wherever environment causes it, and primary stress ['] and secondary stress [,] will be inserted before the stressed syllable whenever necessary.
If one word ends in a vowel and the next begins with a vowel, they are often not seperated by a glottal stop, but rather an appropriate glide or pause. The corresponding vowels and glides are:
i - j e - j y - j or w u - w o - w a - h (not really a glide) & - h ^ - h r - r (the consonal form)The lax vowels some times have a weaker form of the same glides.
Ferengi syllable stress is placed on the syllable of the stem which contains the case vowel, not considering suffixes or prefixes. If there is no stem which contains a case vowel, stress is placed on a suffix which contains a case vowel.
The Ferengi letters have a specific order, and each has a numeric value and a name. They are shown here in order, first all of the left column, then all of the right column.
Letter Name Value Letter Name Value p /pe/ 0 G /Gi/ 20^5 D /Di/ 1 f /fy/ 20^6 g /ga/ 2 u /un/ 20^7 C /Co/ 3 U /Up/ 20^8 t /ta/ 4 h /h^q/ 20^9 k /ki/ 5 K /KaN/ 20^10 s /sa/ 6 M /edM/ 20^11 z /zi/ 7 o /ox/ 20^12 m /mO/ 8 O /Oj/ 20^13 N /Na/ 9 Q /Qo/ 20^14 n /ne/ 10 y /yt/ 20^15 w /wi/ 11 & /&T/ 20^16 v /vo/ 12 b /bZa/ 20^17 x /xe/ 13 P /Pu/ 20^18 j /j&/ 14 e /eS/ 20^19 d /dy/ 15 E /EZ/ 20^-1 V /Ve/ 16 B /BEt/ 20^-2 S /sa/ 17 Z /Zr/ 20^-3 q /qu/ 18 l /laj/ 20^-4 X /Xa/ 19 i /ija/ 20^-5 a /aq/ ordinal I /Is/ 20^-6 ? /?E?/ 20^1 % /%z/ 20^-7 H /Hu/ 20^2 T /Tin/ 20^-8 r /rf/ 20^3 ^ /^d/ 20^-9 R /Ri/ 20^4 @ /puko/ radixOn to the next section