Tundrian Spelling Units

Vowels and semi-vowels

Simple vowel units

The letters a, e and o are always considered as vowels: lat, ped, loc.

The letters i, u and y are considered as consonants, semi-vowels or vowels, depending on their position:

initially (or after an initial <h>) they are consonants if followed by another vowel: iôn, iatrogénic, hierba, huest, yera, hyena;
when they are not silent and are between a consonant and another vowel, they are considered to be semi-vowels (e.g. in: deviam, quand, amphitryôn);
otherwise they are considered to be vowels: fid, mur, myth.

All the other letters are considered to be consonants.

Vowel digraphs

Many combinations of two letters are treated as a single unit in Tundrian. These are called digraphs.

Among vowels, the digraphs are (items in parentheses are variants of the items preceding them):

ae [only before r], ai (ái), au (áu), âu, ay, ee, ei (éi), êi, eu (éu), êu, ey, ie [only in some contexts], iû, iy (íy), oe, oi (ói, ôi), ou (óu), ôu, oy, ôy, ui (úi), ûi, uy, ûy.

Consonants

Simple consonant letter units

The following letters can be used as simple consonant units:

b, c, ç, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z

Note that <h>, although treated as a consonant letter, is actually silent, e.g.: <haveir> /a'vir/ 'to have'; <alcohol> /ɑlku'ol/ 'alcohol'

Consonantal digraphs

The following are considered as consonantal digraphs:

ch, dj, dz, gh, gn, gu [before a vowel], lh, mn, nh, nm, ph, qu, rh, sc [before e, i and y], sç, th, tx, tz (ds, ts), xc [before e and i], xç.

Doubled consonants, on the other hand, are not considered as digraphs. Most consonants can be doubled in writing:

bb, cc (cç, cq), dd, ff, gg, ll, mm, nn, pp, rr, ss, tt, vv.

It should be noted here that Tundrian does not allow the doubling of consonants before another consonant (hence abrêivar, aclamar and atraîr), and only r and s can be doubled in word-final position: tûrr, class.

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