Etrandish alphabet

The Etrandish alphabet is a variant of the High Elven alphabet used for the Etrandish language.

The letters
The dental fricatives are written as.

The front rounded vowels are written as. are written as, even though those letters stood for  in Middle High Elven, and also for the semivowel. Since stands both the vowel  and the semivowel, a special convention is used for  and  - the earlier would be written  , the latter as.

While in Middle High Elven, the preferred way to write was, in Etrandish, the preferred way is  (except in High Elven loanwords). The same way, the preferred way to write is  instead of, not just word-initially. Likewise, the preferred way to write may be  in Middle High Elven, as opposed to the Etrandish  (except in High Elven loanwords).

All in all, the spellings did not change from Middle Etrandish, except that several letters that formerly stood for (long) monophthongs now stand for diphthongs.

The velar nasal is written as.

Orthography
While Middle Etrandish orthography was relatively straightforward, Current Etrandish orthography on the other hand has evolved to include several peculiarities that make it not entirely coherent with the pronunciation.

Native Etrandish vocabulary vs High Elven loanwords
One of the big differences between the spelling of Native Etrandish vocabulary and High Elven loanwords is the rendering of the palatal sibilants :
 * in High Elven loanwords, they are spelled as (ci gi sci), just like in High Elven
 * in Native Etrandish words, they are primarily spelled as (ch j sh) - at least before  (a o u). Sometimes, the High Elven convention of using  (c g sc) before  (e i) is employed, especially word-medially and in personal names.
 * In Native Etrandish words - as well as loanwords from any language other than High Elven - (ch) is nearly always used for  or.

Loanwords from Classical High Elven, Middle High Elven and contemporary High Elven are spelled exactly the way they would be in High Elven, and their pronunciations tend to be Etrandish approximations of what seems to be a mix between Classical High Elven and Middle high Elven:
 * (y ý) were pronounced as, leading to a case where the Etrandish pronunciation is much more conservative and closer to the original.
 * (ae) is pronounced as . In Middle High Elven, the digraph was pronounced as in contemporary High Elven.
 * In Etrandish, before coda-position, leading to  (aer) being pronounced very similarly to the way it was in Middle High Elven.
 * In contemporary Etrandish, Middle Etrandish in both native Etrandish vocabulary and High Elven loanwords. Highly literate priests, erudites and aristocrats may use the conservative pronunciation  in High Elven loanwords.
 * In Classical High Elven, the digraphs (ph th ch) were pronounced  in Middle High Elven. In Etrandish, they are pronounced.
 * In Etrandish, (gn) is pronounced as  in contemporary High Elven. That pronunciation is also used in Etrandish, but only in loanwords from Middle High Elven and contemporary High Elven - otherwise,.

(ae) vs (ai)
In Etrandish, both digraphs stand for the same phoneme, the diphthong before coda-position. However, they are not fully equivalent, as etymologically, they have different origins.
 * Old Etrandish merged as  in Middle Etrandish, but the differences between the two are still reflected in the spellings:
 * Native Etrandish words that had in Old Etrandish use  (ae)
 * Native Etrandish words in Old Etrandish use  (ai)
 * High Elven loanwords always use (ae)
 * Loanwords from Wood Elven and other languages generally use (ai)

(yu) vs (iu)
Since the letter (y) stands for both  in Etrandish, they have developed a peculiar way to spell  - spelling the earlier as  (yu) and the latter as  (iu).

are spelled as (yú) and  (iú).

The many ways to spell
Early Middle Etrandish did not have, (ár) was pronounced.

Around 200 AEKE, before coda-position  shifted to to  became.

These shifts led to (aur ár ál alk) being pronounced as.

In during the transition between Old Etrandish and Middle Etrandish, Old Etrandish coda-position merged into a new  was followed by anything but a vowel: a consonant or a word boundary.

When Middle Etrandish would give way to Current Etrandish, in all variants - except the Northern dialect - and, but once again - only in positions where , in other words: when  is followed by a consonant or a word boundary.

This however remains unreflected in the orthography. As such,  can be written as  (er ir yr ur), so long as it is at the end of a word or is before a consonant.

Former long vowels and diphthongs
Middle Etrandish had six phonemic long vowels. Out of these, three long vowels and three diphthongs would merge: Middle Etrandish would merge into  in Current Etrandish.

As a result, a large number of digraphs would come to represent the same phoneme.

Input

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