Read This First! Pronounciation/Language Basics

[WillMcKay]

Hi everyone - here are a few basics on the Chahi language to help you pronounce the names that are being generated, and understand some of the other language basics. Please post any questions you have here or in the forum! More information will be coming soon in the form of a wiki entry.

Pronunciation
Vowels
Chahi has 6 vowels: 3 short vowels and 3 long vowels. Vowels that follow nasal consonants are nasalized. The short vowels are i, o, and a. The long vowels are ii, oo, and aa. There are no diphthongs in Chahi (also known as a gliding vowel, such the ai in air). When a Chahi speaker encounters two different vowels in a row (such as in Cahokia), they naturally insert a brief pause, giving space for a new syllable. If you want to get advanced, pronounce vowels before nasal consonants including n, ng, or m through your nose (nasalized).

They are written and pronounced as follows:

Short Vowels:

• i as in bit

• o as in soft

• a as in may

Long Vowels:

• ii as in peek

• oo as in book

• aa as in “aaah”

Consonants

• b as in boy

• ch as in chat

• d as in dog

• g as in gulp

• k as in king

• l as in lemon

• m as in man

• n as in name

• ng as in sing

• p as in pop

• s as in snake

• sh as in shake

• t as in tree

• w as in way

• y as in yell

• z as in zoo

• zh as in Asia, treasure, azure

You may notice a handful of words in the glossary or other materials that don't include those letters/sounds. Those are almost always words from other languages that are spoken in the region, or represent loanwords.

Chahi Verbs
Chahi verbs are conjugated based on the person, object, and tense. For instance, to say "I found it," you would say Niwibamika (ni: I, wi: it, ba: past tense, mika: to find).

Chahi Word Order
Chahi Word Order is relatively free, but sentences are typically in Subject/Object/Verb order (I it found, versus I found it).