Alphabet

Koolaŋ uses a very consitent and regular orthography: every word's spelling matches how it's spoken, and all words are spoken in a way that matches their spelling. There is strictly one sound per letter, and one letter per sound.

The Koolaŋ alphabet uses the following 31 letters:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n ŋ o œ p r s š t u v w y z ž þ ð ȝ

Of these, 6 are vowels: a, e, i, o, u, and œ. Those first 5 are the same exact 5 vowels found in languages like Spanish and Esperanto.

Below is a list showing all Koolaŋ letters and how they are pronounced. This list uses International Phonetic Alphabet notation. It is recommended that you look up how to pronounce any IPA symbols you are unsure about.

• Aa: /a/ like the letter 'a' in Spanish
• Bb: /b/ like in bob
• Cc: /tʃ/ like the 'ch' sound in chat
• Dd: /d/ like in door
• Ee: /e/ like the letter 'e' in Spanish
• Ff: /f/ like in fog
• Gg: /g/ like the hard 'g' in get (never the soft 'g' in gel)
• Hh: /h/ like in hat
• Ii: /i/ like the letter 'i' in Spanish, or the 'ee' in see
• Jj: /dʒ/ like the 'j' in job
• Kk: /k/ like in cake
• Ll: /l/ like in laugh
• Mm: /m/ like in mouse
• Nn: /n/ like in no
• Ŋŋ: /ŋ/ like the 'ng' in sing. This letter, called "eng", was created centuries ago to represent the 'ng' sound, but never saw any real use.
• Oo: /o/ like the letter 'o' in Spanish
• Œœ: /œ/ or /ø/ like in French "jeune" or German "schön"; like /e/ but with rounded lips. This letter is also called The "Nobody's Happy" vowel, for reasons described in the Word Formation page
• Pp: /p/ like the 'p' in pop
• Rr: /r/ can be pronounced however you think the letter R should be pronounced, as long as it isn't confusing, like the English [ɹ] in red, trilled [r], tapped [ɾ], French/German [ʁ] etc.
• Ss: /s/ like in set (always soft, never like a 'z' as in rose)
• Šš: /ʃ/ like the 'sh' in shop. This letter is commonly used to represent this sound in the alphabets of Slavic languages
• Tt: /t/ like in tall (never "softened", like the 't' in water sometimes is)
• Uu: /u/ like the letter 'u' in Spanish, or the 'oo' in soon
• Vv: /v/ like in very
• Ww: /w/ like in want
• Yy: /j/ like the 'y' in yes
• Zz: /z/ like in zero
• Žž: /ʒ/ like the 's' in measure. This letter is also commonly used for this sound in Slavic languages
• Þþ: /θ/ like the 'th' in thick. This letter is called "thorn" and used to be in the English alphabet long ago, but was replaced with the 'th' digraph.
• Ðð: /ð/ like the 'th' in then. This letter is called "eth" and, just like 'þ', was once in the English alphabet but no longer is.
• Ȝȝ: /x/ like the 'ch' in German "nacht". This letter is called "yogh" and is yet another letter that isn't in English anymore; it was used for this same sound in place of the now-silent 'gh' in words like "night" or "daughter".

Consecutive Vowels

Any time two or more vowels are consecutive in a word, like in "lean" or "kaušious", the vowels are always pronounced separately, as separate syllables (/le.an/, /ka.u.ʃi.o.us/). This means that 'ai' (like in "pain") is not pronounced as a single syllable (/pain/), but as two syllables (/pa.in/). This helps to distinguish 'ai' from 'ay', which is pronounced as one syllable (/aj/).

This also goes for double vowels, as in the words "good" and "seem" (/go.od/ and /se.em/). These double vowels should ultimately sound like they're pronounced for a longer duration that single vowels are; this prevents confusion between words like "good" and "god".