Romanization Goals

Summarized below is a unified romanization approach leveraged across all languages.

The romanization choices were made with the goal of allowing a monolingual English speaker to approximate the sounds of each language while needing to learn the fewest unique rules as possible. “Approximate” is a key verb here — success would be achieved if a native speaker understands the average English speaker’s pronunciation.

Romanization Considerations

Given this goal, some of the romanization choices below may be nonstandard, but the logic was as follows:

• Avoid diacritic marks given English speakers are not used to them
• For consonants
  • Use single characters as much as possible, which simplifies reading and coda/onset confusion
    • The majority of consonant choices are self explanatory / one-to-one with the IPA
  • Exceptions to single characters include, “ng,” “ch,” “th,” “sh,” “dz,” “dh,” “zh,” and “rr”
    • The first four would be natural to an English speaker
    • The last four would need to be explained as there is not a obvious English spelling equivalent
  • Use “c” for /t͡s/ even though it requires an explanation / may naturally be pronounced as /s/
• For vowels
  • Use “most common” English spelling, when possible, to approximate vowels
    • “e” for /ɛ/
    • “a” for /a/
    • “u” for /ʌ/
    • “oo” for /u/
  • Accept that some “most common” English diphthong spellings might best approximate vowels
    • “o” for /oʊ/, which approximates /o/
    • “ay” for /eɪ/, which approximates /e/
  • Accept some vowels will need to be explained
    • “i” for /i/ ; English speakers may have familiarity with Spanish, which uses “i” for /i/
    • “uu” for /ɯ/ as there is no equivalent English sound, but we can use the comparison with “oo” to help
• For diphthongs
  • Cry in frustration
  • Use direct IPA-to-romanization as, surprisingly, English speakers may naturally approximate the actual diphthongs

Syllable Breaks

An apostrophe is used to separate syllables that would otherwise likely be interpreted incorrectly.

(Side note: for page names or links, the apostrophes are omitted due to limitations in how computers process apostrophes.)

Explanation Example

Using the system outlined below, I believe an explanation as simple as the below could be sufficient for an English speaker to read the examples correctly.

Pronounce all words as you naturally would in English while applying the following specific rules:

• Consonants
  • “c” - like the “ts” in “cats”
  • “dz” - like the “ds” in “adds”
  • “dh” - like the “th” in “the,” not in “thunder”
  • “zh” - like the “z” in “azure”
  • “rr” - a rolled r, like heard in Spanish
• Vowels
  • “oo” - like the “oo” in “boots”
  • “ay” - like the “ay” in “play”
  • “i” - like the “ee” in “feet”
  • “uu” - like the “oo” in foot
  • For any two vowels written together, say them as a single syllable

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Examples

From Kinukibeo

Single Words

IPA	Romanization	Meaning	More Info
Transclude of daptamam#^f4a042	Transclude of daptamam#^3e9154	Transclude of daptamam#^6344e2	daptamam
Transclude of penanoneo#^537a4a	Transclude of penanoneo#^09f116	Transclude of penanoneo#^a72883	penanoneo
Transclude of motuno#^1b07ec	Transclude of motuno#^841984	Transclude of motuno#^5027c5	motuno
Transclude of engmu#^8cc85d	Transclude of engmu#^ac0e75	Transclude of engmu#^4a5783	engmu
Transclude of ungpa#^e9ac18	Transclude of ungpa#^2faec1	Transclude of ungpa#^70e6d4	ungpa

Sentences

IPA	Romanization
am a.ga ta.pa.tam neo	Am aga tapatam neo
am o.go bo.ti.kim ton tu.no.ku	Am ogo botikim ton Toonoku
in.pa bo.ti.ki ton ki.be naŋ ta.pa.ka neo	Inpa botiki ton kibe nang tapaka neo

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From Mwanithra

Single Words

IPA	Romanization	Meaning	More Infor
Transclude of mehsha#^5051d8	Transclude of mehsha#^c7db1a	Transclude of mehsha#^d1e429	mehsha
tɛ.ʃa Link to original	tesha Link to original	he, him Link to original	tesha
Transclude of refre#^1f9776	Transclude of refre#^0ee954	Transclude of refre#^fab8a5	refre
Transclude of shofre#^0029c0	Transclude of shofre#^422d02	Transclude of shofre#^87b4ff	shofre
Transclude of mwatath#^6f2368	Transclude of mwatath#^4fbf47	Transclude of mwatath#^f37985	mwatath

Sentences

Not yet developed enough

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From Shacerthan

Single Words

IPA	Romanization	Meaning	More Info
Transclude of vehzul#^e89b11	Transclude of vehzul#^a06ffb	Transclude of vehzul#^4804fc	vehzul
Transclude of rehchash#^cd9061	Transclude of rehchash#^b3d267	Transclude of rehchash#^3a19fa	rehchash
Transclude of gatnuhl#^fc6d0c	Transclude of gatnuhl#^a22d1c	Transclude of gatnuhl#^e985b2	gatnuhl
Transclude of druhgrehsh#^5bc047	Transclude of druhgrehsh#^67ea2c	Transclude of druhgrehsh#^02e965	druhgrehsh
Transclude of chan#^e30ebe	Transclude of chan#^6bd3db	Transclude of chan#^fc9c56	chan
Transclude of dzir#^e8a76f	Transclude of dzir#^503e60	Transclude of dzir#^67919d	dzir

Sentences

IPA	Romanization
ʒan.nek wit.ti.ka.tas.sɛ.θu	zhannayk witti katas se’thoo
t͡so.ʌl ba.gin.nɛʃ lɯ.fan.ni.sek t͡so.ɛʃ ʒan.nek ɯlɯ wit.tɛ.θa	co’ul baginnesh luufannisek co’esh zhannek uuluu witte’tha
fi.ɛʃ ɛ.re t͡ʃa.ʃɯɹ.ɹi.kɛt͡ʃ d͡ʒi.tat.t͡ʃal waɹ.ɹɛ.θa	fi’esh eray chashuur’rikech jitatchal war’re’tha

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Consonants

IPA	Romanization
Stops
p	p
t	t
k	k
b	b
d	d
g	g
m	m
n	n
ŋ	ng
Affricatives
t͡s	c
t͡ʃ	ch
d͡z	dz
d͡ʒ	j
Fricatives
f	f
θ	th
s	s
ʃ	sh
h	h
v	v
ð	dh
z	z
Other
r	rr
l	l
ɹ	r
w	w
j	y

Vowels

IPA	Romanization
Front
i, iː	i, ii
y, yː	x, xx
e, eː	e, ee
ɛ, ɛː	eh, ehh
a, aː	a, aa
Back
ʌ	uh
u, uː	u, uu
o, oː	o, oo

Diphthongs

IPA	Romanization
ai	ai
au	au
ao	ao
ei	ei
eu	eu
eo	eo
ou	ou
yi	xi
iu	iu
io	io

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