What to know
The Xi'an alphabet is a writing system to write the Xi'an language. Key sections include Vowels, Consonants, and Diphtongs.
The Xi'an alphabet 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. 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 but is now most commonly written as.
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.
Vowels
- SRX||Basic||Block||Corner||Simple pronunciation||IPA
- A: a in father
- Ā: extended a in father
- Â: c in but and cut /
- O: o in cone and bone
- Ō: extended o in cone and bone
- E: e in bet, set and let
- Ē: ay in day, say and slay /
- I: ee in spree only slightly shorter
- II: ee in spree
- U: u in flu
- Ū: extended u in flu
Consonants
- SRX||Basic||Block||Corner||Pronunciation
- K: style="padding-left:8px" |
- M: style="padding-left:8px" | in him, alt:
- N: style="padding-left:8px" |
- NG: style="padding-left:8px" | in Song alt:, and singing
- TH: style="padding-left:8px" | or n with, thin
- L: in tell or, lit; in dialect:
- R: style="padding-left:8px" | or in ital. 'rosa'
- THL: or (rare) + = with love
- XY
- CH
- CHY: No discret glyph. CH in "Cheat"
- KL
- KR: or
- Y: in PYU, KYU, HYUN, NYU or, mutant or
Diphtongs
- SRX||Basic||Block||Corner||Variant||Pronunciation
- AO
- ĀO
- OA
- ŌA
- AI
- ĀI
- EA
U-Diphtongs
- SRX||Basic||Block||Corner||Pronunciation
- UA
- UĀ
- UO
- VU: - Unclear whether this is the bilabial fricative or the labiodental fricative
- UE
- UI
- UII
- UAO
- UĀO
- UOA
- UŌA
- UAI
- UĀI
- UEA
Y-Diphtongs
- SRX||Basic||Block||Corner||Pronunciation
- YA
- YĀ
- YO
- YU
- YE
- YI
- YII
- YAO
- YĀO
- YOA
- YŌA
- YAI
- YĀI
- YEA
Special glyphs
- SRX||Glyph||Pronunciation
- UTH
- E'E
- (Vowel muting)
Numbers
- SRX||Basic||Pronunciation||SRX||Basic||Pronunciation
- 1: 6
- 2: 7
- 3: 8
- 4: 9
- 5: 0
Punctuation
- Symbol||Notes
- Full stop
- Pause
- Epenthesis
- Question mark
- Quotation marks
Pitch and 'Capitalisation'
These examples all use the character as the example.
- Symbol||Notes
- Proper name, i.e. Capitalisation
- Low pitch
- High pitch
- Normal Fall
- Normal Rise
- Rise-to-high
- Fall-to-low
- Rise-to-fall
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