Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

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Afrasian

UK /æˈfɹeɪ.ʒn̩/ · US /æˈfɹeɪʒ(ə)n/ adjective, noun, proper noun

Forms Afrasians

  1. adjective Of or relating to both Africa and Asia.
  2. adjective (linguistics, specifically) Synonym of Afroasiatic (“of, pertaining to, or being a language family spoken in northern Africa and southwest Asia, and including Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Semitic, and possibly Omotic languages”).
  3. noun A thing that relates to both Africa and Asia.
  4. noun (linguistics) A person who comes from a region where Afroasiatic languages are spoken.
  5. proper noun (linguistics, uncommon) Synonym of Afroasiatic (“the language family spoken in northern Africa and southwest Asia, and including Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Semitic, and possibly Omotic languages”).

Synonyms

Afro-Asian Hamito-Semitic Semito-Hamitic Afroasiatic Afro-Asiatic Afroasiatic language Afrasian language

Etymology

Blend of Afro- (prefix meaning ‘Africa’) + Asian, possibly a calque of Russian афрази́йский (afrazíjskij, “of, pertaining to, or being a language family spoken in northern Africa and southwest Asia”).

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Afrasian”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details