copyright © 2026 Dennis Paul Himes
Stennan has fifteen consonants and five vowels. The consonants are voiced stops b,d,g, unvoiced stops p,t,k, nasals m,n,ŋ, liquids r,l, and fricatives f,s,x,h. The vowels are i,e,a,o,u. Stennan does not have diphthongs. Doubled consonants are geminate; they're pronounced both as part of the preceding syllable and the following syllable.
The Stennan alphabet is based on the Darmisan alphabet. Some Darmisan letters which are intended only to be used in onsets are used in codas in Stennan. A few Darmisan letters which represent sounds not found in Stennan are omitted. A few extra letters were invented to represent sounds not found in Darmisan. Here is the Romanized version of those extra letters with the pronunciations in IPA and the Stennan letters.
| l | /l/ | |
| x | /x/ | |
| h | /h/ | |
| xr | /xr/ | |
| hr | /hr/ | |
| xl | /xl/ | |
| hl | /hl/ | |
| bl | /bl/ | |
| dl | /dl/ | |
| gl | /gl/ | |
| pl | /pl/ | |
| tl | /tl/ | |
| kl | /kl/ | |
| fl | /fl/ | |
| sl | /sl/ | |
| ul | /ʊl/ | |
| ol | /ɔl/ | |
| al | /ɑl/ | |
| el | /ɛl/ | |
| il | /ɪl/ | |
If there's an ambiguity as to how to write rhymes which are impermissable in
Darmisan, it's usually resolved with the longest possible early segment
written as one character. For instance, the suffix ast can be written
either
(as)t, or
a(st).
It's usually (but not always) written the first way.
Let C = any consonant, U = p, t, or k, S = p, b, t, d, k, or g, L = l or r, F = f, s, x, or h N = m, n, or ng. Then possible onsets are: C sU sUL SL FL and the possible codas are: C (except x or h) nt nd RN sU
If there's an ambiguity whether a consonant is part of a syllable's coda or the next syllable's onset, it's usually part of the latter.
There is a raised dot in between words, as in Darmisan. In between sentences there are two or three raised dots, depending on the writer's style, in a horizontal row.
Stennan vowels are pronounced tense (/u/, /o/, /a/, /e/, /i/) in open syllables, and lax (/ʊ/, /ɔ/, /ɑ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/) in closed syllables. An open syllable is one which ends in a vowel. A closed syllable is one which ends in a consonant.
Two syllable Stennan words are stressed on the penult. For words of more than two syllables, if the penult is closed it gets the stress, but if the penult is open then the antepenult gets the stress.
Links