Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-213.143.72.174-20131117234834/@comment-213.143.72.174-20140322012722

Here is a nice rundown of all the errors currently present in the first part of the Dragon Language page on this wikia, originally posted by one of the experts on thuum.org:

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 * On the wiki's table, there is no differentiation between "a" and "aa" - they should be represented with the IPA "pretzel" /æ/ for "a" and "long open a-vowel" /a:/ for "aa"
 * "ah" is, to my knowledge, never pronounced as /ɔ/ (the "o" in the British standard pronunciation of "thought", a reduced version of the /ɔ:/ in "lord"), but always as /ax/, as in "Zeymah", or possibly as an aspirated /a/, as in "Odahviing" (but this aspirated version could be merely allophonic, not phonetic).
 * "ei" and "ey" are not only diverse phonemic diphtongs, but also neither of them is pronounced as a long "i"-vowel or /i:/. Dovahzul has "i" or "ii" for /i:/, and "ey" should be pronounced closer to /eɪ/, or even /ej/, as in "Suleyk", while "ei" should be pronounced as /aɪ/ (or possibly in certain contexts as /aj/), as in "Morokei"
 * "ii" is never the short /ɪ/, but always long /i:/ - if any Dovahzul vowel even comes close to the English short centralized /ɪ/, it would sooner be "i" - and even then, I believe the Dovahzul "i" to be closer to the clearer /i/, so merely a shorter version of the longer "ii" than the /ɪ/ in "think". Compare how "Nahkriin," "Dovahkiin" and "Zahkriisos" are pronounced, as opposed to "Ahzidal," "Dilon" and "Alduin." Then try comparing the "i"-s in there with the English short /ɪ/ in "think" and long "i" in "see".
 * "ir" and "ur" are again diverse from one another, as well as neither being pronounced as /ɛr/. Considering in-game pronunciation, they are likely not even phonemes of themselves, but simply combinations of /i/, /i:/, /u/ or /u:/ with /r/. The "ir" is simply /ir/ (as in "Egvir") or /i:r/ (as in the final syllable of "Durnehviir"), and "ur" is simply /ur/ (first syllable in "Durnehviir") or /u:r/ (as in "Gravuun"). This can often be difficult for English native speakers to grasp due to the nature of most English "r"-s and the way they affect the word they appear in, but it comes naturally to speakers of germanic or slavic languages - and considering Dovahzul was made as an ancient language with a very "nordic" sound, I believe the way "r" behaves in Swedish, Norwegian or even Old English should be closer to it than modern English.
 * "oo" is confusing, as it sometimes appears as a long vowel something between /o:/ and /u:/ as in "Joor" and "Yol-Toor-Shul", and at other times as a clear long /o:/, as seen is "Enook" and "Pook". Personally, I believe it was intended as the latter, since Dovahzul already has a long /u:/ in the form of "uu", and sometimes also "u", so having a third way to write the same phoneme is redundant.