Chapter 8 The music of Phi
Writing Phi down
Write lothea in romanization. The six letters record five phonemes because th is one consonant; the final e.a records two vowels and two syllables. Once those two conventions are known, the word has no spelling surprise left to spring on the reader.
Phi currently has two writing modes: romanization and Tengwar. Romanization uses ten single-letter consonants, four consonant digraphs, and five vowel letters for the nineteen reference phonemes. Each spelling points to one reference phoneme, and there are no silent letters. Accepted accent variants change how a grapheme may be pronounced, not how the word is written. Dots such as lo.the.a are teaching aids and disappear in ordinary text.
Phi has no capital letters at the start of a sentence or in a name. A Phi-form name is introduced by ne, which works in speech and in every writing mode. The period is the only visible punctuation mark. Questions use wa; quotations use sha and sho; direct address uses kona; other clause boundaries use spoken words as well. A pause may help a listener, but it cannot change the grammar.
The Tengwar mode
The Tengwar mode carries exactly the same Phi information in another set of forms. Every Phi word begins with a consonant, so its first vowel always has a tengwa on which to sit. When a second vowel follows in hiatus, its tehta sits below the same tengwa that carries the first vowel above. The three-vowel constraint guarantees that no onset ever needs room for a third consecutive vowel. This is one of those rare occasions when a strict phonological rule makes a scribe's life easier.
A digraph such as th takes one tengwa because it is one consonant. The result is compact: lothea takes the tengwa for l with o, followed by the tengwa for th with e above and a below. The Tengwar mode pamphlet teaches the complete mapping and renders its Phi examples in both modes.
Outside source material keeps its own spelling or script. A title, exact record, or name written outside a Phi passage need not be squeezed into romanization or Tengwar. A productive Phi-form name is different: after ne, it follows Phi phonology and can be written in either complete Phi mode.
The opening page of this part made a promise: nineteen sounds, three rules, and the whole language pronounceable. You hold all of it now, in two working hands, with nothing saved back for later chapters. What remains is what the sounds are for. Part IV begins the grammar, and every rule in it will arrive in words you already know how to say.