The Sounds of Vilani

Vilani sounds are not very different from English sounds written the same way. There are some differences,
however, which the simple descriptions here don’t cover. Nevertheless, if you follow this guide, you will
be easily understandable, though you will have a distinct Terran/Anglic accent.
Vilani is often written with the Anglic alphabet. To simplify the learning process, this document will use
Anglic-written Vilani. A description of the Vilani writing systems and some practice text will be found in
the Appendix.

Vowels
There are seven vowels in Vilani. None of them are ‘diphthongized’; the position of the lips, jaw, and
tongue remain the same throughout the sound. There is a natural tendency to extend the duration of aa, ii,
and uu somewhat beyond that of the other vowels; this is perfectly fine, though not necessary.
a This is the sound heard in father, aardvark, alarm, chart, etc.
e This is the sound heard in bed, pet, end, leg, or, classically, the Spanish ‘e’ sound.
i This is the sound heard in it, him, bid, etc.
u This is the sound heard in put, book, pull, put, etc.
aa This is the sound heard in cat, bat, after, math, lax, etc.
ii This is the sound heard in cheap, clean, beef, machine, feel, etc.
uu This is the sound heard in fool, pool, rule, boot, etc.

Consonants
Vilani has 13 consonants.
b This is the sound heard in bet, bib, bell, bond. Some dialects pronounce this closer to the
v in Spanish vaca or Havana, and it may be found written as v in older transcriptions.
This is no longer common, however.
d This is the sound heard in dig, bid, advertise, road.
g This is the sound heard in get, dig, egg, igloo, garden. It is never the sound heard in gem,
giant, or gel.
k This is the sound heard in thick, kick, king, cat, call, active.
kh This sound does not exist in English; it is the guttural sound heard in words such as
Scottish loch or German achtung, or Hebrew challah or Chanukah. It is not the sound
found in German ich, which is made much farther forward in the mouth. It should never
be so sloppily pronounced so as to be confused with the sound of English k or h; neither
should it be so emphatic that you spit on the person to whom you are talking.
l This is closest to the French pronunciation of l. The tip of the tongue should be placed
right up against the back of the upper incisor teeth (the ones right up front and center in
the mouth), rather than farther back, as is often done in English.
m This is the sound heard in milk, mouth, dim, amok.
n This is the sound heard in nice, ban, sun, anise. It should never sound like the n in sing
or sink, even when it appears before g or k.
p This is the sound in put, path, tap, approach.
r Many speakers of English claim not to be able to make this sound, but certain accents,
most notably the South Asian and the so-called ‘upper class’ accents in England, are in
fact quite accurate with it! This sound is often described as a lightly trilled r, but is in
reality much closer to a very weak d. The Indian or Bengali will routinely use this sound
for r; certain English accents, including the most affected, will use this sound for r in
words like ‘very’ (where it sounds much like ‘veddy’), and most Americans will use this
sound for the tt in letter, better.
s This is the sound heard in sun, six, base, class, assign. Some dialects pronounce this as
though it were English h (as in harp, hello), and if this is encountered, it should not be
taken for a mispronunciation of kh.
sh This is very close to the sound in ship, shop, ash, wish, but the tip tongue is ‘flipped up’
to touch the top of the hard palate. This is most common in South Asian languages.
Native speakers of Vilani can hear the difference, but most European or American
speakers of English probably will not.
z This is the sound heard in buzz, zero, zoo.