Orthography

Alphabet

The letters of the Ruritanian alphabet are:

• a – a /a/
• b – be /be/
• c – ce /tʃe/
• d – de /de/
• e – e /e/
• f – ef /ef/
• g – ge /dʒe/
• h – ha /ha/
• i – i /i/
• j – yo /jo/
• k* – ka /ka/
• l – el /el/
• m – em /em/
• n – en /en/
• o – o /o/
• p – pe /p/
• q – quu /kwu/
• r – er /er/
• s – es /es/
• t – te /te/
• u – u /u/
• v – ve /ve/
• w* – duove /ˌduˈove/ (often /ˈdwove/)
• x – ex /eks/
• y – igreca /ˌiˈgreka/
• z – zeta /ˈzeta/

The letters k and w are recited as part of the alphabet, but are only found in borrowed words and are rare even in those.

Spelling

Ruritanian spelling is fairly straightforward. The letters a b d e f h i l m n o p r s t u v z all represent their regular IPA values, while y represents /j/. When the clusters /ks/ or /ts/ appear within a single morpheme, they are spelled x and tz, respectively. If the stressed syllable in a word is not the one predicted by the stress rules laid out on the Phonology page, the vowel is written with an acute accent: byuró /ˌbjuˈro/ “office”. (Secondary stress is never indicated orthographically.)

The phonemes /k g/ are spelled qu and gu before e or i, and are spelled c and g in all other environments (with the exception of /w/ clusters; see below). The phonemes /tʃ dʒ ʃ/ have different spellings in different environments:

• Before /e/ or /i/ they are spelled c g sc: citia /ˈtʃitia/ “city”, genero /ˌdʒeˈnero/ “gender”, scildo /ˈʃildo/ “shield”
• Before /a/, /o/, or /u/ they are spelled ci gi sci: ciaplo /ˈtʃaplo/ “church”, giaca /ˈdʒaka/ “jacket”, sciarfo /ˈʃarfo/ “sharp”
• Before a consonant or at the end of a word, they are spelled cj gj scj: docjta /ˈdotʃta/ “daughter”, Higjra /ˈhidʒra/ “al-Hijra”, scjpilo /ˈʃpilo/ “game”

If /tʃ dʒ ʃ/ are followed by /i/ and then /a o u/ in hiatus, the /i/ is written ii: /ˌdetʃiˈote/ deciiote “eighteen”. (If followed by /e i/, the /i/ is simply written i: /ˌtʃiˈelo/ cielo “sky”.)

The clusters /kw gw/ are spelled qu and gu. If these clusters appear before /e/ or /i/, that vowel is written with a grave accent (e.g. què /kwe/ “what”). If a vowel letter is simultaneously required to have a grave accent to indicate a preceding cluster and an acute accent to indicate irregular stress, the accents the diacritics “combine” as a circumflex: /ˈkwenkon/ quêncon “anywhere” (as *quéncon would be */ˈkenkon/, while *quèncon would be */kwenˈkon/).

Punctuation

Punctuation is by and large the same as English. The major differences are in quotation marks. In works of fiction, dialogue is quoted in «double angle quotes» (and a quote within a quote uses ‹single angle quotes›). Elsewhere (including non-dialogue quotes in fiction), quotation marks use „double inverted commas“, with nested quotes using ‚single inverted commas‘.