This is a pronunciation guide for the Founding Crew dialect of Fenekere and Inmararräo, for help with reading the names and other words mentioned in the our books. Complete grammars and dictionaries for each language will come later.

First of all, because the dominant spoken dialect of Inmararräo changes and drifts over the millennia, and the affects of relativity will have a significant impact on such a drift between the time that you read our stories and any chance that you might actually visit the ship, we’ve decided to give you the Founding Crew dialect, which is unchanging and taught to everyone as a core language. And, this dialect is rooted in the classical pronunciation of Fenekere, so this pronunciation guide will be useful for both languages.

Of course, the chances that you will visit native Inmararräo speakers is so tiny that really, if you create your own dialect amongst your friends and family, no one is really going to complain. And you can pronounce our words nearly any way you like.

So, some quick tips, and then I’ll give you the full IPA charts so that you can refer to those.

One of the things you’ll notice right away is that there are some consonant clusters that may be unfamiliar to you.

Ktl, for instance, is a Fenekere specific consonant that is not used in Inmararräo and that the vast majority of Sunspot residents can’t even pronounce properly. You can get a perfectly reasonable approximation by ignoring the “t” and pronouncing the cluster how you would “kl” or “cl” as in “clean”. It’s not correct, but it’s not going to confuse anyone if you do it that way. The consonant is represented by a single character in Fenekere, and can be rendered with two IPA characters |͡qʟ|. “Proper” pronunciation is further back in the mouth, near the uvula, and the “ʟ” is expressed without the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth. It almost sounds more like a “qwe” sound than “kl”, but not quite.

Next, it is worth noting the differences between “ch” and “cc”, and “rl” and “rr”.

Ch is pronounced like the German version, as found in “Bach”. While cc is used to denote what U.S. Americans are used to for ch, as in “change”. A singular c is not used, so if you see that in a name that isn’t an English translation, it comes from a completely different language of uknown provenance, and you may use your best judgement.

Singular r is used and sounds just like you might expect in English. Where rl and rr are two different ways of rolling an “r”. Rl is forward in the mouth, trilling the tongue against the roof of the mouth, which is pretty common in many Earth languages, while the double rr represents a uvular trill. Some people on the Sunspot render it as a guttural trill, actually growling when speaking, and that’s fine. But German is also known for this sound, if you would like to look for examples from Earth. In most dialects of German, I understand that “grosse” is pronounced with a uvular trill.

All other consonants are close enough to English that they weren’t worth mentioning here.

Now, vowels.

In both Fenekere and Inmararräo all vowels are pronounced clearly and the same way every time. Diphthongs, or vowel clusters, are even pronounced clearly and do not represent a long or short version of one of the vowels. So oa, for example, is pronounced more like “o-a”. And ao is pronounced more like “a-o”. Still one syllable, typically, but it can be broken into two for some dialects for a line in a song. So, “Fenekere” is a four syllable word, and Inmararräo is usually also a four syllable word.

Finally, Fenekere places equal stress on each syllable of the word, while Inmararräo places stress on the last syllable. But, even we don’t do that when we’re talking to U.S. English speakers. U.S. English is extremely lazy, and it’s hard for us not to let it affect even our names.

Note, Inmararräo literally means “vocalizings of the Great Alliance”.

Anyway, that should get you covered for most of the words and names you might encounter in our stories. At least, enough to converse reasonably with other readers (and, well, us actual authors – not our kayfabe/fictional counterparts).

And, now, the IPA.

Fenekere phonemes
‘ = |ʔ| as in “ uh oh”
f = |f| as in “fun”
d = |d| as in “David”
k = |k| as in “cricket”
l = |l| as in “lolly pop”
n = |n| as in “none”
p = |p| as in “pop”
r = |ɹ| as in “rare”
z = |z| as in “zany”
v = |v| as in “every”
t = |t| as in “tart”
h = |h| as in “harmony”
x = |ks| as in “taxes”
w = |w| as in “woah”
j = |dʒ| as in “Jonathan”
s = |s| as in “season”
y = |j| as in “yes”
q = |kw| as in quick
cc = |tʂ| as in “check”
rl = |r| as in Spanish “perro”
m = |m| as in “mom”
g = |g| as in “go”
sh = |ʂ| as in “shoes”
pl = |pl| as in “place”
th = |θ| as in “thought”
rr = |R| as in German “grosse”
ng = |ŋ| as in “bring”
tl = |tl| as in “bottle”
ktl = |͡qʟ| fake it badly with “class”
ch = |x| as in “Bach”
b = |b| as in “Bach”

e = |ɛ| as in “pep”
a = |ɑ| as in “pop”
i = |i| as in “peep”
o = |o| as in “pope”
u = |u| as in “poop”

Old Inmararräo phonemes
‘ = |ʔ| as in “ uh oh”
f = |f| as in “fun”
k = |k| as in “cricket”
n = |n| |n| as in “none”
r = |ɹ| as in “rare”
t = |t| as in “tart”
h = |h| as in “harmony”
w = |w| as in “woah”
y = |j| as in “yes”
m = |m| as in “mom”
g = |g| as in “go”
sh = |ʂ| as in “shoes”
rr = |R| or |ʢ| as in “grosse”
b = |b| as in “Bach”
ng = |ŋ| as in “bring”

e = |ɛ| as in “pep”
a = |ɑ| as in “pop”
ä = |æ| as in “pap”
i = |i| as in “peep”
o = |o| as in “pope”
u = |u| as in “poop”