Pig Latin/Lessons/1: Orthography

Main Concept

'Orthography' is how you use and pronounce a certain language's alphabet-- the main concept of this lesson is the NAPL orthography.

Have you ever noticed how inconsistent English'es orthography is? For example, in "ear," the 'e' is stressed, but in "have" it is silent. In "apple," 'a' is pronounced "ah," while in "maple" it is pronounced "ay." It might seem simple, like second-nature to you-- but for the student learning English as a second language, it can be somewhat of a nightmare.

Fortunately enough, NAPL is much more consistent in it's pronunciation. Follow this pronunciation exactly-- I'm not trying to trick you in it's simplicity. Each letter has only one sound, and doesn't change.

Letter	Pronunciation	Example	Anti-Example
A,a	Ay	Mate, fate, date	Exam, car, far
Ā,ā	Ah	Exam, car, far	Mate, fate, date
B,b	Buh	Brother, bait, bite
C,c	Ch	Catch, snatch, ratchet
D,d	Duh	Date, dinosaur, ride
E,e	Eh	Exactly, excited
Ē,ē	Ee	Beak, keep, sleep
F,f	Ff	Fight, fly, fish
G,g	Guh	Gate, great, magnet
H,h	Hh	High, hug, help
I,i	Ih	Big, snicker, knickers	Sigh, fly, cries
Ī,ī	Eye	Sigh, fly, cries
J	Jyuh	Jump, jacks, mage	Barage, mirage, bonjour
Ĵ,ĵ	Jj	Barage, mirage, bonjour	Jump, jacks, mage
K,k	Kuh	Kite, cake, case
L,l	Ll	Lull, left, flag
M,m	Mm	Make, mirage, mice
N,n	Nn	Next, never, knot
O,o	Oh	Boat, float, moat	Soot, boot, newt
Ō,ō	Oo	Soot, boot, newt	boat, float, moat
P,p	Puh	Pear, plight, pick	Philip, phrasing
R,r	Rr	Right, incorrect, rest
S,s	Ss	Snake, strike, cipher
Ŝ,ŝ	Sh	Fish, wish, shell	Snake, strike, cipher
T,t	Tuh	Quest, night, plight	The, there, then
Ť,ť	Thuh	The, there, then	Quest, night, plight
U,u	Uh	Idea, Done, run
V,v	Vee	Very, vexxed, Vladimir
Z,z	Zee	Zebra, zedbra

You probably noticed that there are some additional letters-- Ā, Ē, Ī, Ō, Ĵ and Ŝ-- and that some letters are missing-- W, X. In English, a lot of the letters have two or more jobs. For instance, G can be "guh" or "jyu" depending on context: "mirage" and "gate". In NAPL, none of the letters have double-time. They each have one job, and one job only. As for the missing letters, well, they just weren't necessary. W can easily be expressed with "ōu," and X can easily be written as "eks."

You should probably take a few minutes to look over this chart, and try to memorize it as best you can. Practice transliterating some words into this orthography, say the letters' sounds aloud, and then move onto the practice.

Practice

Transliterate the following:

1. Book
2. Chat
3. Joke
4. Mirage
5. Run
6. Fight
7. Dish
8. Grating
9. Sky
10. Away

Hey, don't scroll any farther than this until you answer the questions!

Answers

1. Bōk
2. Cāt
3. Jok
4. Mirāĵ
5. Run
6. Fīt
7. Diŝ
8. Gratēng
9. Skī
10. Uōuay