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Consonants
The following letters/digraphs are pronounced as in English:
p,t,k,m,n,f,v,s,z,sh,w,y,h,l,ch,th (th is always as in thank)
d: This letter is like t, only with the tip of your tongue tapping against the edges of your
top front teeth.
r: This letter is a voiced tap. A tap is like the sound you make if you say "ladder"
really fast.
rr: This letter is a trill produced in the back of the mouth, like the trill made by people
who can't do the Spanish rr.
zh: This letter is the sound the s makes in "measure."
sk: A palatal s, touch the tip of your tongue to your lower teeth and blow air across
it.
kh: Like German Bach, air blown across the region where k is articulated with
an audible friction.
hw: Like regular w, only without the vocal cords vibrating.
hy: Like regular y, only without the vocal cords vibrating.
dth: A smooth transition from d to th, like ch is for t and sh.
ts: A transition from t to s, like in "tsunami" or German z.
ch', s': Hard to describe, put your tongue in position for the regular sound, then
build pressure behind your tongue. (Glottalized version of the sound.) I may include sound files in the future.
NOTE: A y after a consonant palatizes the preceding consonant.
Vowels
i: Makes sound like "i" in "fish."
ì: Makes sound like "ee" in "feet." (Alt 141)
ï: Makes sound like German ü or French u, if you're not familiar with these sounds, simply
round your lips while making the i sound. (Alt 139)
u: Makes sound like "oo" in "food."
e: Makes sound like "e" in "bed."
è: Like "ay" in "pay." (Alt 138)
ë: Like German ö, or the e sound with rounded lips. (Alt 137)
o: Like "oa" in "boat."
a: Like "o" in "pot."
à: Like "ou" in "bought." (Alt 133)
Diphthongs and Consonant Clusters
The only diphthongs are:
ay: Like "I" as in the pronoun.
oy: Like "oy" in "boy."
Consonant clusters are pretty simple, pronounce them how you think they'd be pronounced.
The only ones you may have trouble with are the ones that begin with an f and a stop following it. Just make an f sound
and quickly stop the airflow with the next consonant.
Stress
The stress is on the first syllable in words with more than one syllable, but on the second
in two-syllable words that end in a consonant. For two-syllable words that end in a vowel, the first syllable is stressed.
Special note: Elision
In Kushan, if a word ends in a vowel and the following word begins in a vowel, drop the vowel
from the end of the first word. For example: Sha + oy = Shoy
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