Savoyard - Spoken in the Republic of Savoy
| Stressed | Unstressed | |
|---|---|---|
| /a/ Like the a in father | [ə] It is like the a in about when unstressed. | |
| /ɛ/ like the e in pet | [ɪ] Like the i in pit, unless final when it tends to become /ə/ | |
| /ei/ For most speakers, it is like the ey in they. A very few speakers pronounce it like the ee in meet (/i/). | It does not occur in unstressed positions. | |
| /i/ Like the ee in meet | Also [i], but it is usually silent when final except in careful, formal speech. See î below. | |
| It only occurs finally. | [i] It is pronounced like the ee in meet. It is used when -i is pronounced consistently /i/ and not dropped as in malagassî 'Malagasy', thus its use is not like in Italian. Some publishers never use î. Many have been inconsistent in their use of it. | |
| /ɔ/ Like the o in roll | /u/ Like the oo in cool | |
| [u] Like the ou in you. In careful pronuncation it is pronounced like the oe in toe ([ou]). | It does not occur in unstressed positions in native words. | |
| [ø] It is pronounced like German ö or French eu. This sound is found only in the Western dialects and is not consistently marked. | It does not occur in unstressed position. | |
| [y] This is pronounced like the ü of German or the u of French (as
in tu). [-] It is silent in the letter combinations gue, gui, que, and qui. | It is found rarely in unstressed position, but when it is unstressed, it may be pronounced like the aforementioned ü or like the oo in cool (/u/) depending on the word. As /u/, it is generally only found in transliteration of foreign words, though ou is more common here. |
| Letter(s) | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
| As in English | ||
| Before a, o, and u is like k in English but unaspirated Before e or i it is like s in English. | ||
| Like English s. It is not considered a separate letter. | ||
| More dental, as in Italian | ||
| As in English | ||
| Before a, o, and u is like g in English Before e or i, like s in English measure | ||
| Like Italian gn or Spanish ñ | ||
| Always silent | ||
| Like s in English measure. | ||
| Like English k, but only found in foreign words | ||
| Like English l but becomes /w/ at the end of syllable if a consonant follows | ||
| Like English m | ||
| Like English n. Finally it is often nasalized. | ||
| Like English p but unaspirated | ||
| Like English k (but unaspirated) in the combinations que and qui, but /kw/ in the combination qua | ||
| Tapped like in Spanish or Italian. But in rapid informal speech it is silent at the end of syllables. | ||
| Like English s generally. Intervocalically, it is /z/. The combination ss is always like English s. | ||
| Like English t but more dental. A t at the end of a word when preceded by a consonant (usually l or r) is usually silent: part /par/ or even /pa/. If the next word begins with a vowel, the /t/ is restored. | ||
| Like English v | ||
| Like English sh. It is used only to transliterate foreign words with /ʃ/. | ||
| Like English y. | ||
| Like English z but only used in transliterating foreign words |
The consonants are generally pronounced as in Italian. Double consonants are not pronounced doubly and exist to indicate historically open e ([ɛ]) or o ([ɔ]), thus terra, not tera.
Double consonants can occur finally if another form of the word has a double consonant: bell 'beautiful' (masc. sing.) and bella (fem. sing.). However, bel is also found.
Savoyard words have stress on the last syllable if they end in a consonant and on the next to last if the word ends in a vowel. It is on the third to the last syllable if the word ends in an i and a vowel: Albania, not Albània. If the word is not stressed according to these rules, the stressed vowel is indicated with a grave accent. The diphthongs ei and ou almost always carry the stress. If they are stressed in a syllable that breaks the above rule, the e or o may be marked with an acute accent. This almost inevitably happens in a transliterated word: Timboctóu or Timboctou.
| masculine singular | feminine singular | masculine plural | feminine plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| before a consonant | before a vowel or h- | before a consonant | before a vowel or h- | before a consonant | before a vowel or h- | before a consonant | before a vowel or h- |
| el | l' | la | l' | yi | y' | le | le |
| del | del' or dl' | d'la | del' or dl' | deyi | dey' | dele | dele |
| al | al' | ala | al' | ayi | ay' | ale | ale |
| nel | nel' or nl' | 'nla | nel' or nl' | neyi | ney' | nele | nele |
masc. sing.: un
fem. sing.: una, before a vowel: un'
masc. plur.: uni, i.e. 'some'
fem. plur.: une
Nouns have only masculine or feminine gender. Masculine nouns generally end in a consonant and feminines end in -a. Some nouns end in -e; the gender of these nouns must be learned.
Masculines
Generally, to form the plural of a masculine noun, add -i.
There are some variations, though.Nouns in -c:
Nouns in -g: These always form their plurals in -gui: dialog 'dialog' > dialogui.
For a feminine noun, change
the -a to -e. If a noun ends in -e, change the -e to -i.
Some masculine (mostly) monosyllabic nouns change internal -a- to -e-: can 'dog' > queni.
Feminines in -cioun add -i to form the plural: accioun 'action' >
acciouni