The editing screen requires at least 450 pixels of horizontal space. Please rotate your device or use one with a bigger screen.

The phonetic system - vowels

Surayt has the vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and /ë/. With the exception of /ë/, as a rule they will all be pronounced as long vowels in open syllables and short vowels in closed syllables.

Long vowels in closed syllables, just as short vowels in open syllables are exceptions and need to be memorized separately. Usually these are due to irregular or borrowed words from contact languages.

1. Long vowels in closed syllables

2. Short vowels in open syllables

Besides /ë ܷ /, the Surayt writing system expresses only the short vowel /a/ in open syllables with a particular vowel sign, which is /ä ܱ /. However, based on pedagogical reasons, it will not be used until later lessons. For the time being, it will be written as the vowel /a/ with Ftoḥo ܰ .

The short vowel /ë ܷ /, which is also called ‘schwa’, resembles the short, unstressede-sound in ‘the’ and the ‘a’ in ‘allow’. It can, however, appear in any syllable form.

According to the particular speaker, in many cases for historical reasons it is not always possible to determine the difference between /ë/ and the short vowels /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/.