Basic Alphabet - Vowels

The Vowel Chart fig. 1
i /i/ O /ao/ u /u/
E /e/ e /eh/ o /o/
A /a/ U /uh/ a /ah/

When learning the vowels, it is important to learn their placement on the vowel chart (fig.1). The importance of the vowel chart will become apparent with further study, but for now, begin to familiarize yourself with the vowels' placements.

Please take note that the vowel y /y/ is considered a quasi-variant of the vowel e /eh/, and, therefore, should be treated as though it were in the same position on the vowel chart.

Below are the vowels of the basic alphabet in Kryptonian alphabetical order. When all the letters are listed, it is common to see the vowels coming either before or after the consonants, or, just as frequently, coming in-between /m/ and /n/.

In the list you will notice several items of information. You can click on the letter itself to see the proper way to write it. IPA is provided for pronunciation.

Pronunciation Help

For help with IPA I suggest starting with the IPA Wikipedia entry. There you can find descriptions of every symbol along with audio examples. (Many of the audio examples are encoded with Ogg Vorbis, so you may need to go here to download free viewing software.

The Vowels

 Kryptonese: /i/
IPA: [i] [j]
Name: /i/
Font Mapping: i
Kryptonese: /e/
IPA: [e]
Name: /e/
Font Mapping: E
Kryptonese: /a/
IPA: [æ]
Name: /a/
Font Mapping: A
Kryptonese: /ao/
IPA: [a͡ʊ]
Name: /rao/
Font Mapping: O
Kryptonese: /eh/
IPA: [ɛ]
Name: /eh/
Font Mapping: e
Kryptonese: /uh/
IPA: [ʌ]
Name: /uh/
Font Mapping: U
Kryptonese: /u/
IPA: [u]
Name: /u/
Font Mapping: u
Kryptonese: /o/
IPA: [o]
Name: /o/
Font Mapping: o
Kryptonese: /ah/
IPA: [ɑ]
Name: /ai/
Font Mapping: a

The "Extra" Vowel & Dipthongs

 Kryptonese: /y/
IPA: [ɪ]
Name: /ieh/
Font Mapping: y
Kryptonese: /y/
IPA: [a͡ɪ]
Name: //
Font Mapping: â
Kryptonese: /y/
IPA: [o͡ɪ]
Name: //
Font Mapping: ø