Missa: Other: Writing Systems: Alphabetic
Latin alphabet in current use. The following letters are used:
a á b c ć d e é ė g i í j k l m n ń o ó p r s ś t u ú v y
Unless otherwise marked below, all letters are said like their IPA equivalent.
- All vowels with acute accents, save 'é', are read like their non accented counterparts (e.g., it is not indicative of any vowel length or quality distinction or stress marking).
- <b v> both are read as /β/. A change similar to that in Spanish occured, where all of [w b v] collapsed into a single phoneme.
- <c> is read as /t͡s/ before back vowels and as /t͡ɕ/ before front vowels. <ć> is read as /t͡ɕ/ in all positions.
- <é> is read as /i/ in all positions.
- <ė> and <y> were originally read as /ə/ in all positions. Currently, /ə/ is losing ground to /a/, and a merger is occurring.
- <g> always represents /ɣ/; however, it has an allophone [ʝ] before front vowels.
- <ń> is read as /ŋ/ in all positions.
- <ś> is a phoneme distinct from /s/ whose precise articulation is not yet fully understood. While on this page this sound has been marked as /ɕ/, it is more than likely that it is in fact [s̠] (a retracted alveolar sibilant) or similar.
There have been several thoughts about a special alphabet made for Missa, but no one idea has gained momentum.
