Carogine

Carogine is a phonetic script used to write the English language.  Derived from Tengwar and the Modern English alphabet, Carogine is composed of 25 consonants, 10 vowels, and 3 diphthongs.

As a phonetic script, words in Carogine are written according to how they sound, rather than how they are traditionally spelled.  For example, “cat” would be spelled with a “k”, while “ceramic” would start with an “s”.  Likewise, “go” would be spelled with a “g”, while “gentle” would begin with “j”.

Consonants

Carogine introduces 6 letters not found in the Engligh alphabet:

c:  “chi” is a “ch” sound, as in “chair”;
S:  “esh” is an “sh” sound, as in “shell”;
Z:  “ezh” is a “zh” sound, as in “measure”;
H:  “thay” is an unvoiced “th” sound, as in “thing”;
T: “they” is a voiced “th” sound, as in “thus”;
N: “eng” is an “ng” sound, as in “song”.

The remaining consonants in Carogine have the same names as their Modern English counterparts.

The following chart displays the Carogine letter or symbol, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol representing its pronunciation, the English alphabet equivalent, and a sample word with the corresponding sound highlighted.

*The only consonant in Carogine to represent a sound not found in the English language, x (“x”) is not the “ks” sound of the English x, but rather the IPA /x/ as pronounced in the Scottish loch, German Buch, or Hebrew echad.

Vowels and Diphthongs

A vowel is represented by placing a diacritical mark above or below the consonant that follows the vowel, or attaching the mark to a vowel carrier.  The primary vowel carrier, , is used at the end of words, and when successive vowels occur within a word.  It may also be used in any situation in which the division of syllables is important, such as hyphenation or music notation.  The other two vowel carriers,  and , are used with diphthongs.  Diphthongs always appear with their designated vowel carriers, and do not combine with consonants.

Vowels

Diphthongs

Examples

Vowel carriers are named after the Latin letters they resemble (o, i, u).  The names of the diacritical marks are as follows:  A fleur;  E macron;  I acute;  O right curl;  U left curl;  a inverted breve;  e breve;  i overdot;  o underdot;  u comma above.

Vowel Combinations With R

When vowels combine with the letter R, they sometimes change slightly in sound, as illustrated in the following chart:

Consonant Diacritics

Carogine has four consonant diacritics.

1. Tilde Below

A tilde placed below a consonant or vowel carrier is used to represent a preceding /w/ sound, which occurs before the vowel modifying the same character, as in:

When used in combination with the underdot, the tilde is positioned beneath the vowel diacritic.
When preceded by a vowel, the w is written out.

2. Diaeresis Below

A diaeresis placed below a consonant or vowel carrier is used to represent a preceding /y/ sound, which occurs before the vowel modifying the same character, as in:

When used in combination with the underdot, the diaeresis is positioned beneath the vowel diacritic.
When preceded by a vowel, the y is written out.

3. Underscore

An underscore is used to indicate a preceding nasal consonant (/m/, /n/ or /ŋ/), which follows the vowel modifying that character, as in:

The underscore may represent n before any consonant except /s/ or /z/, but it represents m only preceding /b/ or /p/, and N only preceding /g/ or /k/.