Section 1 --- Phonlogy

This section describes a spelling system that I use to write Ferengi
words.  It is a phonemic system that described Ferengi words sound-for-
sound, with a specific, consistent sound assigned to each letter.
Upper and lower case letters are distinct from one another.  Do not
try to pronounce any vowels as if the Ferengi words were English words;
your pronunciation will be wrong.

Later, you will see that Ferengi words have large consonant clusters with
few vowels.  In certain places, you need to insert a schwa (after voiced
stops), or a gap (after voiceless stops).  These are not represented in
writing, although in Section 4, they are shown.

Phonemic spellings of Ferengi sounds, words, and sentences are often shown
beween slashes (/.../).

Mostly english words are used as examples, but for the vowels and foreign
consonants, it's very hard, so I do my best.

CONSONANTS


Stops
    Voiceless   Labial      /p/ -- [p]et, sto[p]
                Dental      /t/ -- [t]op, po[t]
                Velar       /k/ -- [k]ite, ba[ck]
                Uvular      /q/ -- Like /k/ but the back of the tongue
                                   is against the uvula, rather than
                                   the velum.
                Glottal     /?/ -- the stop in the middle of uh[-]oh
                                   Also in Cochney or Scottish bo[tt]le
    Voiced      Labial      /b/ -- [b]et, sta[b]
                Dental      /d/ -- [d]umb, ba[d]
                Velar       /g/ -- [g]ood, ba[g]
    Voiced Ingressive
                Labial      /V/ -- pronounced like /b/, but air is sucked
                                   into the mouth at the instant that the
                                   lips part.
                Dental      /C/ -- pronounced like /d/, but ingressive
                Velar       /X/ -- like /g/, but ingressive

Fricatives
    Voiceless   Bilabial    /P/ -- like /f/, but with the lips
                Labiodental /f/ -- [f]an, hal[f]; becomes /P/ after /p/
                Interdental /T/ -- [th]in, ba[th]
                Dental      /s/ -- [s]top, pa[ss]
                Palatal     /S/ -- [sh]ine, bo[sh]
                Velar       /x/ -- Ba[ch] (composer, German)
                                   [H]annukah (Jewish holiday)
                                   Analogy:  s:t::x:k
                Glottal     /h/ -- [h]ello, [h]alf
    Voiced      Bilabial    /B/ -- like /v/ but with the lips
                Labiodental /v/ -- [v]ery, hal[v]e; becomes /B/ after /b/
                Interdental /D/ -- [th]is, ba[th]e
                Dental      /z/ -- [z]ip, spa[zz]
                Palatal     /Z/ -- a[z]ure, mea[s]ure, [j]our (French)
                Velar       /G/ -- [gh]adha (Arabic for 'lunch')
                                   Analogies:  z:d::G:g, s:z::x:G
                Uvular      /R/ -- Pa[r]is (French), d[r]ei (German)
                                   Like /G/ but with tongue against
                                   the uvula.

Glides
    Voiced      Labial      /w/ -- [w]et, ho[w]
                Palatal     /j/ -- [y]ou, bo[y]

Liquids
    Voiced      Dental      /l/ -- [l]ive, ta[ll]
                Palatal     /r/ -- [r]un  (seldom used this way)

Nasals
    Voiced      Labial      /m/ -- [m]ud, spa[m]
                Dental      /n/ -- [n]ed, fa[n]
                Velar       /N/ -- ba[ng], si[ng], [ng]uyen
                Stop        /M/ -- lips together or back of tongue against
                                   velum with velum up, holding in air.
                                   Then air is allowed to suddenly excape
                                   through nose by lowering
                                   of velum, while vocal chords vibrate.

VOWELS

Tense
   Front   Unrounded  High  /i/ -- b[ee]t, p[ee]k  {iy}
                      Mid   /e/ -- b[ai]t, p[ay]   {ey}
                      Low   /&/ -- b[a]t, c[a]t, p[a]ddle (not in Ferengi)
           Rounded    High  /y/ -- m[ue]de (German).  Say /i/, but with
                                   lips rounded for /u/.
   Central Unrounded  Mid   /^/ -- b[u]t, m[u]d  {^h}  In English, this
                                   is allophonic with /@/, but here it is
                                   strongly tense and distinct from /@/.
                 Retroflex  /r/ -- [r]un, f[ur], wat[er].  These are
                                   the American pronounciation.  They
                                   most be pronounced correctly, and
                                   strongly retroflex.  Used as a vowel.
                                   Sounds just like "er" in American.
   Back    Rounded    High  /u/ -- m[oo]d, f[oo]d, g[oo]p   {uw}
                      Mid   /o/ -- b[oa]t, t[o]ne, tac[o]   {ow}
                                   (NOT Brittish /@U/)
                      Low   [A] -- br[a], b[o]x (American)
                                   (interchangable in Ferengi with /a/)
Lax
   Front   Unrounded  High  /I/ -- b[i]t, m[i]lk
                      Mid   /E/ -- b[e]t, f[e]lt
   Central Unrounded  Mid   [@] -- Schwa.  Fers[e] (German), c[o]mputer
                      Low   /a/ -- m[a]nn (German), t[a]sk (Brittish),
   Back    Unrounded  High  /U/ -- b[oo]k, f[oo]t
                      Mid   /O/ -- b[o]y, w[a]ter (Brittish), m[o]re

Gap                         [-] -- This usually represents a syllable
                                   boundary.

Ferengi have the tendancy nasalize vowels.  This means that the velum is
lowered so that air can resonate through the nasal cavities as well as in
the mouth.  For example, in English, all vowels before nasal consonants
are nasalized.  The nasalization in Ferengi has no effect on meaning, but
there is a pattern to it:

Front vowel + /n/   -- nasalize vowel and often drop /n/
Back vowel + /N/    -- nasalize vowel and often drop /N/
Rounded vowel + /m/ -- nasalize vowel, but don't drop /m/

In most languages, vowels preceding nasal consonants must be nasalized in
order for there to not be a drastic changein air flow from the oral-vowel
to the nasal consonant.  In Ferengi, though, this isn't always the case,
but it produces a peculiar result.  The Nasal Stop listed above is an
artifact of an oral vowel being pronounced before a nasal consonant.  The
sound /M/ is the result of the air flow being halted by the tongue on the
mouth (reaching the point of articulation for the nasal consonant), then
suddenly being released through the nose.  The proper nasal consonant then
follows that release, but it often overwhelmed by the sound of the nasal
stop.

As an example, consider the case where you try to pronounce /an/ but with
/a/ being an oral vowel.  Due to changes in air flow, you actually get
something that sounds like /adMn/.  Similarly, /am/ becomes /abMm/ and
/aN/ become /agMN/.  The in order to distinguish this odd case of oral vowel
before nasal consonant, the Ferengi write out the /M/ phoneme, but the
do not write the following nasal consonant since it is overwhelmed by the
change in airflow and not heard well.  Instead, they write the voiced stop
before the nasal stop to show the point of articulation and the nasal
consonant can be inferred from that.  This phonomenon results in the
following correspondences:

/m/ - /bM/
/n/ - /dM/
/N/ - /gM/

Long (double in length) vowels are written as the letter doubled.

The basic vowels used are a, o, i, u, ^, e, y, O, and r.  The others are
allophones of their corresponding tense vowels.  Short (in length) vowels
may be pronounced lax (/I/ for /i/, /U/ for /u/, /E/ for /e/), but long
vowels are always as written.  In cases where /i/, /u/, and /e/ are
required, they are in free variation with /I/, /U/, and /E/, respectively.
In cases where /I/, /U/, and /E/ are required, they are NOT interchangable
with /i/, /u/, and /e/.

Dental consonants are similar to English Alveolar consonants, except the
tongue is against the back of the teeth, rather than behind them.

In many languages if there are two consonants together, one voiced, and the
other voiceless, one will assimilate the voicing of the other.  For example,
in English, the combination /sb/ would usually turn into /zb/, while the
combination /zt/ would become /st/.  In Ferengi, this is not the case.  The
phonemes must be pronounced as they are written.  In fact, Ferengi is
capable of having combinations like /vf/ and /fv/, where they point and
method of articulation of the two phonemes is the same, but one is voiced
and the other is not.  This will take some practice to learn, and as a
result of this, there are no morphophonemic laws.  This will cause much
difficulty for learners of Ferengi.

It should be noted that voiceless stops are often heavily aspirated, but
that there is no phonemic difference between an aspirated stop and an
unaspirated stop.  They are often aspirated in situations where the
phoneme might otherwise sound like a voiced stop due to environment.  For
example, in the word /bjavt/, in order for the /v/ to not absorb the
voiceless quality of the /t/, it has to be stressed, but then to compensate
for the /t/'s tendancy to now absorb the voiced quality of the /v/, the /t/
has to be aspirated.  Aspiration is the puff of air that often follows
/p/, /t/, and /k/.  Compare the 't' in "top" (aspirated) to the 't' in
"stop" (unaspirated).

The system I use for transcribing the Ferengi language relies heavily on
the actual Ferengi writing system.  In the language there are places where
schwa [@] and gap [-] are inserted that the Ferengi writing system
leaves out and therefore so has my transcription method in the past.
Due to problem associated with this, I have decided to insert [-] and [@]
into phonetic transcriptions.  These phonetic transcriptions will be
shown in brackets ([...]), while the phonemic transcriptions will continue
to be shown between slashes (/.../).  Additionally, phonetic transcriptions
will have [w], [j], [?], and [h] inserted wherever environment causes it,
and primary stress ['] and secondary stress [,] will be inserted whenever
necessary.