Pronouncing Dragonspeak

[n] - “a bass-heavy nasal N sound”

[h] - “a wispy/breathy sound similar to lightly clearing ones throat, but without the…er, juiciness, for lack of a better term”

The distinction between “containing life” and “lacking life” isn’t a strict binary. Some words (mostly compound words?) have both [n] and [h] in them.

[s] - “a slight hissing sound” produced by breathing in while speaking

sj - “As the transliteration implies, it is a cross between an ‘s’ and a ‘j’, but in fact it is a bit more complex, containing s+sh+ch+d+j all combined into a rumbling, buzzing compound that, despite containing so many sounds, is spoken at the same speed as a simpler consonant.”

ft - “Another seemingly simple compound sound that is actually quite complex—the ‘t’ sound not being a full stop, but breathed through, placing it somewhere between ‘t’ and ‘th.’”

y - “One must be careful not to pronounce this as ‘ee,’ as that may change the meaning of the word. ‘Y’ is actually closer to a ‘ye’ sound, but without the ‘y’ sound being as prominent. The ‘Y’ is effectively swallowed as it segues into the ‘e,’ leaving the listener with something that is clouded at the beginning, but eventually resolves in a long vowel.”

Forum discussion

Posted by Makaijin:

This is all amazing stuff, but I have a request. Is it possible to add the IPA for the examples?

Like for example, with “sj sja[h]s” (vengeance), i’m guessing it’s pronounced as [st͡ʃʰas] ?

Or from you description of “ft fta[h]r” (after/later), can i assume it’s pronounced as [fθaʰɺ] ? Also, since you didn’t really mention, I assume the “r” is an approximant, as having an aspirated [a] followed by a schwa wouldn’t really make any sense.

Also from your description of “y dy[h]r” (differ/different), I assume the “y” is a palatal approximant, and since you mentioned it ending into a long vowel, the “r” would more of a schwa rather than a alveolar approximant. So I assume it sounds something close like this, [djʰə].

Posted by Dragonspeak creator Fernehawles:

Your assumption that the Rs following aspirated vowels are approximants is correct. The best way to describe the sound would be a bass-heavy, throaty rumble that feels like it originates not in the layrnx, but somewhere deeper… It’s safe to say that an accurate reproduction by a non-dragon is impossible, due to the difference in vocal fold make-up.

I’ve purposefully left out the IPA from my post (and the dictionary) because I wanted something that better represented the current state of Eorzean knowledge on the language. Like I mentioned in an earlier reply, information is scarce, and so even scholars on the subject are still mostly in the dark on the complex tongue’s intricacies. It’s not like they have access to devices that can easily record and analyze data… let alone access to the dragons who are speaking it. And even if a linguist did make his way into Anyx Trine without getting robbed by bandits, garroted by a Gnath, or pecked to death by a chocobo, I’m uncertain he’d succeed in getting Vidfonir to chat with him for a series of 8-bell sessions.

That said, I can say that what you came up with for sj, ft, and y are extremely close to what I have in my documentation. sj is tough, as there’s a bit more going on than just st͡ʃʰ (which is already a lot), and the while the aspirated T in [ft] is close to θ, the airflow around the tongue is far more limited, which is why T was chosen as a simple transliteration (rather than TH).

Man… You can imagine what it’s like trying to get a voice actor to follow these…