The Ashouctian language uses the Latin alphabet. The 70 consonants and 4 vowels of the language are not represented in a 1:1 grapheme to phoneme ratio, but the language can be transcribed with little ambiguity.
Alphabet
Despite the large number of sounds in the language, it only uses 18 letters of the Latin alphabet, but also makes use of the accute accent.
- a á b c d e é è f g h i í l m n o ó p r s t u ú
The letters are named as follows:
- á bé cé dé é èf gé hé í èl ám án ó pé ár sé té ú
Letters with the acute accent or the e with the grave accent are ignored when reciting the alphabet. The language never makes use of j k q v w x y and z outside of foreign names. Loanwords are transcribed phonetically into the language.
Ashouctianization of Loanwords
| Grapheme | IPA | Ashouctian spelling |
|---|---|---|
| j | /d͡ʒ/ | d and strong vowel |
| /j/ | i | |
| /ʒ/ | sh | |
| k | /k/ | c |
| q(u) | /k/ | |
| /kʷ/ | co | |
| v | /v/ | bh |
| w | /v/ | |
| /w/ | ||
| /u/ | u | |
| x | /ks/ | cs |
| /x/ | ch and weak vowel | |
| y | /j/ | gh and strong vowel |
| /i/ | i | |
| z | /z/ | s and weak vowel |
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Lab. | Central | Lat. | Pl. | Lab. | Pl. | Lab. | Pl. | Lab. | |||||
| Pl. | Lab. | |||||||||||||
| Nasal | m | mo | n | no | ng | ngo | ||||||||
| Stop | Voiceless | p | po | t | to | c | co | c | co | |||||
| Voiced | b | d | do | g | go | |||||||||
| Affricate | Voiceless | th | t | |||||||||||
| Voiced | ts | d | ||||||||||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | fo | s | so | l | s | so | ch | cho | ch | cho | h | |
| Voiced | bh | sh | sho | gh | gho | |||||||||
| Approximant | l | gh | bh | |||||||||||
| Trill | Voiceless | rh | ||||||||||||
| Voiced | r | |||||||||||||
Some graphemes represent two sounds and these constitute strong and weak sounds. Consonants are weak next to an a, ó, or u. Consonants, similarly, are strong next to an e or i. O without an acute accent is not a vowel grapheme, so modifying graphemes go after the o in co. Any grapheme other than the 9 in the table below can be written next to any vowel.
| Grapheme | t | d | c | co | bh | s | so | l | ch | cho | gh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weak sound | /t/ | /d/ | /k/ | /kʷ/ | /w/ | /s/ | /sʷ/ | /l/ | /χ/ | /χʷ/ | /ʁ/ |
| Strong sound | /t͡ʃ/ | /d͡ʒ/ | /q/ | /qʷ/ | /v/ | /ʃ/ | /ʃʷ/ | /ɬ/ | /x/ | /xʷ/ | /j/ |
Vowels
Vowels, due to the presence of the strong consonants, are complex. Many of the vowels in written Ashouctian are not pronounced.
- Long vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú) are always pronounced.
- Vowels on either side of a long vowel near a strong consonant are not pronounced and are only there to satisfy orthography rules.
In the table below, W is a weak pronounciation of a strong consonant, P is a plain consonant that has a single pronunciation, W₁ is a weak pronunciation of a strong consonant or a plain consonant, and S is a strong pronunciation of a strong consonant.
| a | e̞ | ə | i | u | aː | e̞ː | əː | iː | uː | ai | au | əi | əu | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P_P | a | e | è | i | u | á | é | ó | í | ú | ai | au | èi | èu |
| W_W | a | aeu | aèu | aiu | u | á | aéu | ó | aíu | ú | aigh | abh | aègh | aèubh |
| S_W₁ | ea | eu | èu | ia | iu | eá | éu | eó | ía | iú | eaigh | eao | ègh | èo |
| W₁_S | ai | ae | aè | ui | ue | ái | aé | ói | uí | úe | aigh | abh | aègh | aèubh |
| S_S | eai | e | è | i | iue | eái | é | eói | í | iúe | eaigh | eabh | ègh | èubh |