This portion of the Ferengi lexicon describes in detail how to pronounce each of the sounds used in the Ferengi language. Each sound (phoneme) is described individually, grouped by type, The order they are explained in does not correspond to the order that they are arranged in the Ferengi alphabet.
To begin, I must explain some technical terms which will make my job of describing sounds more concise and your understanding easier. The information and terms contained in this file are generally useful linguistics, so even if you're not interested in the Ferengi language itself, some of the information here may be a nice introduction to the subject of phonology. For the reference value, I have chosen to explain things which are not important to the Ferengi language alone. I should also note that I am an American; if there is any question as to how I pronounce things, then watching a national American news show should give you good example of my dialect. Nevertheless, I am aware of the proper pronounciation of British RP and several European languages, so I attempt to give examples in those languages so as to reduce ambiguity.
Phonetic segment - This is an actual utterance, a real sound that one produces when speaking. When a word is written phonetically, more information is usually given than is necessary for recognition, because variations in sound that can be predicted from environment are still written. Phonetic transcriptions are written in [brackets].
Phoneme - This is an abstraction. It is the basic unit of how one's brain interprets a sound in accordance with the rules of your language and the environment of other sounds around it. For example, consider the letter <t> in the words <stop> and <top>. If you listen to what you are saying, you may notice a slight difference in those who <t>'s. The <t> in <top> has a little puff of air following it (aspiration), while the <t> in <stop> does not. If you are only now aware of this difference, then you see how grouping the two different sounds together is a result of your brain's filtering of unnecessary information. Which phonetic segments are actually produced for a given phoneme is, by definition, always predictable from environment; furthermore, no one phonetic segment will occur where another should (complementary distribution). It should be noted that the <t> sounds in <stop> [t], and <top> [th] are considered to be different phonemes in many languages, but they are not in English. Phonemic transcriptions are written in /slashes/.
Allophones - One phonetic segment is allophonic with another if your brain thinks they're the same. One phoneme may have several possible corresponding phonetic segments, all of which are allophones. Consider the different /t/ sounds in <better>, <top>, <stop>, <train>, and <pot>. Being trained to think in terms of English, you may think they're all the same but in reality, they're each slightly different. If I recall correctly, Navajo speakers consider [t] to be same as [d], [s] to be the same as [z], etc.
Method of articulation - How the air-flow is controlled when pronouncing a phonetic segment. The following
Voiced - The vocal chords vibrate while pronouncing a particular sound. b, v, d, z, zh, g, r, w, y, m, n, ng, th(ese), l, j, and all vowels are voiced in English.
Voiceless - The vocal chords are relaxed and therefore do not vibrate. p, f, t, s, sh, k, th(ing), h, and ch are all voiceless in English. Compare those to the voiced consonants and become familar with the difference. Some voiced/voiceless pairs are: b/p, v/f, d/t, z/s, g/k, and j/ch. Try pronouncing each one in each pair, one after the other. When you realize that the only important difference is a matter of your vocal chords vibrating or not, you will understand the voiced/ voiceless distinction.
Stop - A type of consonant that is produced by stopping the flow of air and (usually) allowing the air to be suddenly released. The pressure built up that is released comes from the lungs (in contrast to an ejective, where the pressure comes from the larynx, but you don't need to worry about that). Examples of stops in English are: p, b, t, d, k, and g. Stops can be followed by a small puff of air, which is called aspiration, and makes a phonemic distinction in many languages.
Fricative - This term comes from the word 'friction', because your tongue is approaching another part of your mouth so that the air flow is subjected to audible friction. In English, these include: f, v, th, s, z, sh, zh, and h.
Glide - Some part of the mouth must be in motion to produce a glide sound, gliding from one place to another. In English, these include: w, y, and r.
Liquid - There is some obstruction of air flow, but not enough to cause friction. A good example of this in English is /l/, where the tip of the tongue touches the same part of the roof of the mouth as for /t/, but the sides of the tongue are lowered, allowing air to escape around the tongue with no friction. 'er' in American English is considered by some to be a liquid because the tip of the tongue it curled up, causing slightly more obstruction than a vowel.
Lateral - This refers to the sides of the tongue. Air is obstructed by some part of the tongue, but is allowed to escape around the sides. In English, /l/ is also a good example of a lateral, as described above. /l/ is, therefore, a lateral liquid. /l/ is the only lateral in English, but 'll' in Welsh is a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative.
Nasal - The mouth is used as a resonance chamber, but the velum is lowered, allowing air to escape through the nose. In English, these are: m, n, and ng. The velum can be lowered at other times, like when pronouncing a vowel. In French, there are four nasal vowels which are seperate phonemes: in, en, an/on, and un. In English, vowels are only nasalized when they come before nasal consonants, so they are not seperate phonemes.
Implosive stop - This is nothing like in English. An implosive stop is very much like a normal stop, but air is sucked in by the larynx at the instant that the stop is pronounced. Examples of implosive stops in Vietnamese are: P_ and D- (where the horisontal bar is supposed to be superimposed over the letter).
Trill - Sound in which the tip of the tongue vibrates against the roof of the mouth.
Point of articulation - The place in the mouth where the tongue touches or approaches in order to pronounce a particular sound.
Labial - This refers to one lip or both. Labials in English are: b, p m, f, and v.
Bilabial - This refers to both lips. Bilabials in English are: b, p, and m.
Dental - This referrs to the teeth. Dentals in English include: f, v and th. Dentals (against the back of the teeth) in French, Spanish, other romance languages, and Russian also include: t, d, s, z, l, n, and some times r (trilled against the back of the teeth).
Labiodental - Upper lip and lower teeth. In English: f and v.
Interdental - The tip of the tongue between the teeth. In English: th.
Alveolar - This refers to the ridge just behind the teeth. In English, these include: t, d, s, z, n, and l. Both Alveolars and Dentals are grouped together as Coronals. In Ferengi, all Coronals are Dental.
Postalveolar - Just behind the alveolar ridge, where the palate begins to slope up. In English, these include: sh, zh, ch, j.
Palatal - The roof of the mouth. An example of this in German is 'ch' after i, e, u", o", and a".
Velar - This refers to the soft part of the back of the palate. It can be raised and lowered, blocking and permitting air flow into the nasal chamber, respectively. Velars in English include: k, g, and ng.
Uvular - The uvula is the small fleshy bag that hang down in the back of the throat behind the velum. It raises and lowers with the velum. Uvulars in Arabic include: khaa' (usually), ghayn, qaaf.
Glottal - The glottis is the opening between the vocal chords. The glottis can be relaxed (creating voiceless sounds), closed tightly (glottal stop), or given some tension (causing vibration and producing voiced sounds). Examples of glottals in English are: h and the stop in the middle of "uh-oh".
Abbreviations
AE - Standard American English
RP - British "Received Pronounciation"
Here, I do not list consonants in the order that the Ferengi put them in, but instead I put them in an order which I feel will help you understand them the most easily so that once you understand how familiar sounds are pronounced, you can use that knowlege to produce the unfamiliar ones. If there is a good English example of a phoneme, it is placed immediately to the right of the technical description of the phoneme: the English word is put into <angle brackets> and the phonemic transcription is placed in /slashes/. The pronounciations I give for the English words are American.
/p/ - voiceless bilabial stop <pop> = /pap/ /b/ - voiced bilabial stop <bob> = /bab/ /v/ - voiced labiodental fricative <valve> = /v&lv/ /B/ - voiced bilabial fricative Like /v/, but the two lips are used, instead of the upper lip and lower teeth. In Ferengi, /bv/ is usually articulated as [bB]. /V/ - voiced bilabial implosive Pronounced like /b/, but air is sucked into the mouth at the instant that the lips part. /m/ - voiced bilabial nasal <mom> = /mam/ /f/ - voiceless labiodental fricative <fife> = /fajf/ /P/ - voiceless bilabial fricative Like /f/, but the two lips are used. It's about like blowing air between slightly parted lips. Also similar to the puff of air that some times follows /p/. In Ferengi, /pf/ is usually articulated as [pP]. /w/ - voiced bilabial glide <wow> = /w&w/ To better understand other glides, it should be noted that this sound occurs when one is moving toward or away from an /u/ (English 'oo') or /o/ sound. /t/ - voiceless dental stop <tot> = /tat/ /T/ - voiceless dental lateral fricative The tip of the tongue is against the back of the teeth, while the sides of the tongue are lowered slightly, allowing air to escape between the teeth and the sides of the tongue, creating a lot of friction. This can be pronounced like in the English word , but it is not standard for Ferengi. /d/ - voiced dental stop <dad> = /d&d/ /l/ - voiced dental lateral liquid <lilly> = /lIli/ /D/ - voiced dental lateral fricative The tip of the tongue is against the back of the teeth, while the sides oft he tongue are lowered slightly, allowing air to escape between the teeth and the sides of the tongue, creating a lot of friction. At the same time, the vocal chords vibrate. This is very muck like /l/, but the sides of the tongue are raised up more, so as to cause friction. This can be pronounced like <th> in the English word <this>, but this is not stardard for Ferengi. /C/ - voiced dental implosive Pronounced like /d/, but air is sucked into the mouth at the instant that the tongue is pulled from the back of the teeth. /n/ - voiced dental nasal <none> = <n^n> /s/ - voiceless dental fricative <sauce> = /sas/ or /sOs/ /z/ - voiced dental fricative <zoo> = /zu/ /S/ - voiceless postalveolar fricative <sheesh> = /SiS/ /Z/ - voiced postalveolar fricative <Zhivago> = /Zivago/ This is like <z> in <azure>, <s> in <measure>, <j> in French <je>, and <g> in French <rouge>. /j/ - voiced palatal glide <yikes> = /jajks/ The tongue is in the process or moving toward or away from an /i/ (English 'ee') or /e/ (English 'ay') sound. /r/ - voiced alveolar trill This is the same as 'r' in Spanish. This is often called 'trilled' or 'rolled'. /k/ - voiceless velar stop <coke> = /kok/ /g/ - voiced velar stop <gag> = /g&g/ /N/ - voiced velar nasal <sing> = /sIN/ Just like the <ng> sound in <sing>, but in Ferengi, it can come at the beginning of words, like in the Vietnamese name Nguyen. /x/ - voiceless velar/uvular fricative <Bach> = /bax/ This corresponds to the German (not English or Spanish) 'ch' sound when following u, o, or a. This is also the same as Klingon "H". Depending on environment, the back of the tongue may be against the velum or uvula. /G/ - voiced velar/uvular fricative This is very much like the Arabic letter ghayn or the Modern Greek letter ghamma. It's also very much like the Klingon "gh", which is described as, "... putting the tongue in the same position it would be in to say English <g> as in <gobble>, but relaxing the tongue somewhat and humming. It is the same as Klingon 'H' (see below), but with the vocal chords vibrating at the same time." This is usually the same as /R/, but without lip rounding. Unlike /R/, though, /G/ may be velar after a front vowel. Most Ferengi don't distinguish between /R/ and /G/, so it simply becomes a matter of spelling. /R/ - voiced uvular fricative This is just like the 'r' in most dialects of German, French, and Modern Hebrew. It's similar to /G/, but the back of the tongue is always against the uvula, and there is a slight amount of lip rounding. /q/ - voiceless uvular stop Much like /k/, but the back of the tongue is against the uvula, rather than the velum. This is the same as the Arabic letter qaaf. /X/ - voiced velar implosive Pronounced like /g/, but air is sucked into the mouth at the instant that the back of the tongue parts from the velum. /h/ - voiceless glottal fricative <hahaha> = /hahaha/ Like the sound at the beginning of <hello>. /?/ - voiceless glottal stop <uh-oh> = /^?o/ There is no letter for this sound in English, but it's not an uncommon sound. It can also be heard in a Cockney or Scottish pronounciation of <tt> in <bottle>. /M/ - Nasal Release This isn't a normal consonant. Usually, when a stop consonant is released, the air escapes throught the mouth. But it's possible for a stop to be released through the nose. Instead of the tongue pulling from the point where it is stopping the air, the velum is lowered, letting air to escape through the nose instead. In Ferengi spelling, the /M/ symbol always follows a voiced stop, which specifies the point or articulation. Therefore, the following combinations are possible: /bM/, /dM/, and /gM/, which sound very similar to /bm/, /dn/, and /gN/, respectively. You can also get this sound by trying to pronounce a nasal consonant after an oral vowel, causing a drastic change in air-flow.
Assimilation. In most languages, adjacent consonants of different voice value tend to both become either voiced or voiceless. For example, in the word <dogs>, the <s> is made voiced, taking on the voiced quality of the <g>. Compare this to <cats>, where the <s> can't be voiced, and note that is is very hard to say <catz> with the <z> maintaining its voiced quality. This process of taking a quality of a neighboring consonant is called assimilation. In Ferengi, this process could cause trouble since it would cause some meaning to be lost. As example of where this does happen is the augmentative suffix /vt/. Some times it is articulated as [vd] and some times as [ft]. But most often, to maintain the proper voice quality of all consonants, schwa [@] is inserted, so /vt/ will some times come out as [v@t]. (When /vt/ or any other combination of consonants in a verb modifier (suffix) is part of a verb, gerund, or participle, the case vowel is inserted instead of schwa, so in the case of a verb, /vt/ would be pronounced as [vat].)
Vowels are produced by positioning the tongue in the mouth so as to create a resonance chamber. Different tongue positions cause sound to resonate differently, creating different vowel sounds.
In this chart, the technical names are given for different tongue positions. For front vowels, the tip of the tongue is important, for central the blade, and for back the back of the tongue. When two symbols are shown right next to each other, the one on the left is pronounced without lip rounding, and the one on the right is pronounced with lip rounding.
front central back
high iy u
mid e% @ o
low & a
When reading this list, pay close attention to the technical description of any vowels which are unfamiliar to you, because comparing them to the descriptions of familar sounds can help you learn the pronounciation.
Short Vowels - The short vowels sound most like short versions of the long vowels given below, but in rapid speech, they often sound like the examples given here.
/a/ - low-mid, central, unrounded <but> - /bat/ This actually sounds more like <a> in <father> than the example, but the example is the closest thing that English has. A better example would be the <a> in the German word <fand> This covers a range of possible sounds: 'a' sound in <pie> /paj/ <a> sound in French <tas> 'a' sound in <cow> /kaw/ but not <a> sound in RP <pot> and not <a> sound in RP <lawn> /e/ - mid, front, unrounded <bet> - /bet/ /i/ - high, front, unrounded <bit> - /bit/ /o/ - mid, back, rounded <boy> - /boj/ This is just like the <o> sound in <boy> and <more>. Also like <aw> in RP <lawn>, and some times like <a> in RP <pot>. /u/ - high, back, rounded <foot> - /fut/ /y/ - high, front, rounded <u"> (u-umlaut) in German and <u> in French. The tongue is in the same position as /i/, but the lips are rounded like for /u/. German <hu"tte> French <lune> /%/ - high-mid, front, rounded <o"> (o-umlaut) in German, and <oe> in French. The tongue is in the same position as /e/ but the lips are rounded like for /o/ or /u/. German <o"ffen> French <boeuf> [@] - Schwa: mid, central, unrounded. <about> - /@bawt/ This is the shortest vowel that you can pronounce. The tongue is completely relaxed. Also sounds like a final <e> in German, and a final <er> in most British RP words like <father>.
Long vowels - The long vowels sound more like the given examples. It is important that they be pronounced more tense and longer in duration than the short vowels given above.
/aa/ - low, back-central, unrounded <bra> - /bra/ There are two tense forms of /a/. This is what you get when it intensifies toward the back. <a> sound in RP <laugh> (but not American) <a> sound in German <Wagen> /&/ - low, front-central, unrounded <cat> - /k&t/ This what you get when /a/ intensifies torward the front. This is only written as one symbol, but it is a long vowel. This is also similar to the <a> sound in RP <task> or French <lac>. /ei/ - mid, front, unrounded <bait> - /beit/ This is actually a diphthong and is often spelled /ej/. It is included here because the closest thing English has to /ee/ is /ei/. This diphthong occurs less frequently in Ferengi than does the pure vowel /ee/. /ee/ - mid, front, unrounded An English speaker will have trouble distinguishing this from /ei/, and it will sound like it is somewhere between /e/ and /ei/. But to the Ferengi, /ee/ is distinct from /ei/. To pronounce it correctly, pronounce /ei/, but without the glide or 'drawl' at the end. /ii/ - high, front, unrounded <meet> - /miit/ /ou/ - mid, back, rounded <tone> - /toun/ This is actually a diphthong and is often spelled /ow/. It is included here because the closest thing English has to /oo/ is /ou/. This diphthong does not occur very often in Ferengi. The pure vowel /oo/ is far more common. /oo/ - mid, back, rounded This is the <o> sound in AE, German, French, Spanish, and a lot of other languages, but NOT the <o> sound in British RP, which is rendered in Ferengi as /eu/. An English speaker will have trouble distinguishing this from /ou/, and it will sound like it is somewhere between /o/ and /ou/. But to the Ferengi, /ee/ is distinct from /ei/. To pronounce it correctly, pronounce /ei/, but without the glide or 'drawl' at the end. /uu/ - high, back, rounded <boot> - /buut/ /yy/ - high, front, rounded Long form of /y/. German <bu"ro> French <lune> /%%/ - high-mid, front, rounded Long form of /%/ German <scho"n> French <feu>
Diphtongs - A diphthong is a vowel followed by a glide /j/ or /w/. Often the glide is written as the associated vowel /i/ or /u/, respectively. /e/ and /o/ are used to represent partial glides associated with /j/ and /w/, respectively.
/ai/ or /aj/ <bike> - /baik/ /ae/ - This is very much like /ai/, but the glide does not go all the way up to /i/. Many Ferengi pronounce this just like /ai/, while for others, the diphthong sound has risen to /ei/. /au/ or /aw/ <cow> - /kaw/ /ao/ - This is very much like /au/, but the back of the tongue does not completely rise to /u/. Many Ferengi pronounce this just like /au/, while for others, this diphtong doung has risen to /ou/. /ei/ or /ej/ <bait> - /beit/ /eu/ or /ew/ - This sounds like <o> in British RP. /oi/, /oj/, or /oy/ <boy> - <:;boi> /ou/ or /ow/ <tone> - /toun/ /uj/ - Similar to /oi/, but a the initial vowel is a little higher.
The Ferengi tend to nasalize vowels. This means that the velum is lowered so that air can resonate through the nasal cavities as well as in the mouth. In English, all vowels before nasal consonants must be nasalized to prevent drastic air-flow changes resulting in weird sounds similar to /M/. But in Ferengi, some times vowels are nasalized, allowing the nasal consonant to be dropped, in this pattern:
front vowel + /n/ -- nasalize vowel and often drop /n/ back vowel + /N/ -- nasalize vowel and often drop /N/ rounded vowel + /m/ -- nasalize vowel and some times drop /m/
This pattern changes when there is more than one instance of the case vowel in a word. The primary case vowel, immediately after the root, is distinctly nasal, while every other vowel in the word becomes distinctly oral (normal). Also in this case, nasal consonants following vowels cannot be dropped. Additionally, while case vowels are always long, secondary case vowels are always short.
The Ferengi have three letters which are no longer used, and the pronounciation has been absorbed by other letters. In this chart, the sound is described, and to the right is shown the letter that its sound combined with. These letters are still used in math and science, and many Ferengi can pronounce them. On occasion, these letters are even passed over as slient.
/Q/ - voiced uvular stop => /g/ /K/ - voiced uvular implosive => /X/ /H/ - voiceless uvular fricative => /x/
Usually, Ferengi words are written phonemically, which matched the Ferengi writing system. But when the reader needs more information about how a Ferengi word is pronounced, the word will be transcribed in [brackets], and a few extra symbols will be inserted:
[-] - syllable break ['] - primary syllable stress [,] - secondary syllable stress [w] - glide between [o], [u], [%], or [y] and the following vowel [j] - glide between [e], [i] or [y] and the following vowel [?] - between [a] or [&] and the following vowel [@] - inserted between impossible consonant clusters
Syllable stress is placed on the syllable of the stem which contains the primary case vowel (immediately after the root), not considering suffixes and prefixes. If there is no stem which contains a case vowel, stress is placed on a suffix which contains a case vowel.
Ferengi has a lot of large, impossible consonant clusters, and to break them up, schwa [@] is inserted to make things pronouncable, but not in writing. In the case of verb modifiers, a secondary copy of the case vowel is inserted between consonants rather than schwa, but it is also not written.
The Ferengi letters have a specific order, and each has a numeric value and a name. They are shown here in order, first all of the left column, then all of the right column.
Letter Name Value Letter Name Value p /pe/ 0 G /Gi/ 20^5 D /Di/ 1 f /fy/ 20^6 g /ga/ 2 u /un/ 20^7 C /Co/ 3 U /Up/ 20^8 t /ta/ 4 h /h^q/ 20^9 k /ki/ 5 K /KaN/ 20^10 s /sa/ 6 M /edM/ 20^11 z /zi/ 7 oo /oox/ 20^12 m /mO/ 8 o /oj/ 20^13 N /Na/ 9 Q /Qo/ 20^14 n /ne/ 10 y /yt/ 20^15 w /wi/ 11 & /&T/ 20^16 v /vo/ 12 b /bZa/ 20^17 x /xe/ 13 P /Pu/ 20^18 j /j&/ 14 ee /eeS/ 20^19 d /dy/ 15 e /eZ/ 20^-1 V /Ve/ 16 B /BEt/ 20^-2 S /sa/ 17 Z /Zr/ 20^-3 q /qu/ 18 l /laj/ 20^-4 X /Xa/ 19 ii /ija/ 20^-5 aa /aaq/ ordinal i /is/ 20^-6 ? /?E?/ 20^1 % /%z/ 20^-7 H /Hu/ 20^2 T /Tin/ 20^-8 r /ref/ 20^3 a /ad/ 20^-9 R /Ri/ 20^4 @ /puko/ radix
Here are some sentences for you to ponder and take apart. If you want some added, email them to me. If you make some of your own, you can email them to me also and I'll add them to the list. The English phonetics (in single quotes) is the closest I can get to how it should sound, written in a way that an English speaker would understand it.
"Hello, my name is 'ofir'." /bjaavt, dZfkootu ees ofir/ ['bjaa-vat dZ@f'koo-tu ees 'o-fir] 'BYAH-vaht, jf-KOH-too ays oh-fear' "Sir, do you want food?" /blk, kamnaaz wloo/ [bl@k kam'naaz w@'loo] 'bl'k, kahm-NAHZ w'LOH' "Dhak has seen Omei's hand." /Dak vaav kaxoo omeuu/ [Dak vaav ka'xoo o-me'juu] 'Thahk vahv kah-KHOH oh-may-YOO' "Fiddle is red." /fidl Galee/ ['fid-l Ga'lee] 'Fiddle ghah-LAY' "No good deed ever goes unpunished." /puk noo psyy dxnaapub spi/ [puk noo psyy d@x'naa-pub spi] 'pook noh psue d'x-NAH-poob spi' "Once you have their money, you never give it back." /myyt bvoobu studM Tatxaavtp spi bii gmeef/ [myyt 'bBoo-bu 'stud-Mn Tat'xaav-tap spi bii g@'meef/ 'muet BVOH-boo stoodn that-KHAHV-tahp spi bee g'MAYF' "His money is only yours when he can't get it back." /bvo?uu kuee adMk ?aStaap Tadkaa gmeef/ [bvo'?uu ku'wee adM-k ?a'Staap Tad'kaa g@'meef] 'bvoh-'OO koo-WAY adn-k 'a-SHTAHP thad-KAH g'MAYF' "Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to." /xDaavtp gelmoo dkii joN Ngo kalfaa/ [x@'Dav-tap gel'moo d@'kii joN N'go kal'faa] 'kh'THAHV-t'p gel-MOH d'KEE yohng ng-GO kal-FAH' "Never allow family to stand in the way of oppurtunity." /Zdaavtp spi Vedoo ikaas Coo/ [Z@'daav-tap spi Ve'doo ik-aas Coo/ 'zh-DAHV-tahp spi Be-DOH ik-AHS Doh' "Always keep your ears open." /ntgaavt ndfyyt paag szoomku/ [nt'gaa-vat nd'fyyt paag so'zoom-ku] 'n-t'GAH-vaht n-d'FUET paag s'ZOHM-koo' "Opportunity plus instinct equals profit." /Co wan fthgo stumaa bjoo/ [Co wan f@t-h@'go stu'maa bjoo] 'Doh wahn f't-h'GOH stu-MAH BYOH' "A deal is a deal." /f&k et f&k pikyy/ [f&k et f&k pi'kyy] 'fak ayt fak peek-UE'
This section is to give you a better understanding of how this phonemic system works. If you want any more added, just ask me in email. /Dis sekS@n iz tu giv juu @ betr @ndrst&ndiN @v haw Dis foniimik sist@m wrks. If yuu w@nt @ny mor &d@d, dZ@st &sk mii in iimeil/
"Have a nice day." /h&v @ nais dei/ "The Ferengi are a race that grasp the concept of capitalism with a passion." /D@ ferengi ar @ reis D&t gr&sp D@ kaansept @v k&pit@lizm wiT @ p&S@n./
The Ferengi language has an extensive technical, mathematical, and financial vocabulary. The Ferengi have a high regard for academics, especially economics. Knowlege is power, and the Ferengi know it. A Ferengi's knowlege of calculus or chemistry could potentially prove profitable in the future, so Ferengi children are strongly encouraged to do well in these subjects, as well as have a firm grasp on the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. Future versions of this text will contain some of that vocabulary, but a much more complete dictionary would be included in a book.
The Ferengi writing system, unfortunately, can't be represented in this text file. However, a few things can be said about it. One of the more common writing systems is a linear, left-to-right cursive script. For each letter, there are 5 forms: Initial, intermediate, final, isolated, and simplified. The initial form is for the beginning of a word, the intermediate form goes between two other letters, the final form goes at the end of a word, the isolated form is neither preceded nor followed by another letter, and the simplified form mostly resembles the isolated form, but it was originally used for other Ferengi writing schemes and is used with computers.
If you examine the history of Roman alphabet (the one we use), you can see that parts of it were borrowed from the Greek alphabet, which was taken from the Pheonicians, who spoke a Semitic language. The Semites were the first to develop a true alphabet (in contrast to a syllabary or pictorial writing system). Their alphabet could be described as a syllabary where each letter represents a specific consonant and ANY vowel. Their alphabet evolved this way because in communication, consonants carried meaning, while vowels only carried gramatical information. Each letter was originally a picture of something which started with that letter and the letter was named after that thing (ie. their /d/ is called /dalet/, which means 'door', and it was originally drawn to resemble a door). As the Semitic languages evolved and divided, in some cases vowels came to convey more meaning. To account for this, the Semites began to use consonants (glides usually) to represent their corresponding vowels (/j/ was used for /i/, /w/ for /u/, etc.). By the time the Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet, the practice was quite common and necessary, and the Greeks followed suit. The Greeks needed vowels to be written, and there were sounds in the Phoenician alphabet which didn't exist in Greek, so the Greeks used some of those extra consonants to represent their vowels. Over these thousands of years of evolution, the modern Roman alphabet does not resemble the first alphabets at all, while the evolutionary origins are clear. Additionally, the names of the letters (even for Semitic languages like Arabic) have changed and simplified.
Ferengi writings go back as far as 20000 years in varying forms with what appear to be 6 or 7 independantly developed alphabets (it appears that one alphabet may have been a mixture of two ancestors), as well as over 100 different syllabaries and pictographic writing systems. Some of the alphabets can be traced to syllabaries, while the rest are of uncertain origin. The standard Ferengi script (/tixepjo/) cannot be traced to a particular syllabary, although it looks like it may have been modeled after one. Like a few others, its history starts out as something resembling an alphabet. The earliest writings that /tixepjo/ can be traced to looked like an alphabetic form of a syllabary, where every syllable was written as a consonant with a vowel above it, and the language that first used it appeared to have a strict CV syllable structure. A number of languages used this writing system, and those languages that didn't have this strict CV structure would write consonants without vowels above them, but there was a consistent tendancy for the vowels to fall to the right of the consonants, especially when there were vowel clusters. The earliest written forms of /tixek/ wrote the vowels above the consonants, except in cases of vowel clusters where the second and subsequent vowels were written to the right of the consonant. Over time, the language changed so that vowels started to become less important to meaning in some places, so many writers would omit writing the vowels in places where it was easy enough to recognize the words without the vowels. With this omission of vowels, the remaining important vowels fell to the right of the consonants, resulting in spellings very much resembling those of modern Ferengi words (although the letters were not yet written in a connected script), but with very different pronounciations since the omitted vowels were still pronounced. About 800 years ago, members of the Ferengi ruling class got a bright idea. They thought that since the vowels were not written, that they weren't important and started having schools teach the language with the omitted vowels unpronounced. Over a period of about 100 years, they were largely successful at implementing their rather misguided plan to 'improve' the language, which instead resulted in a language that is hard to pronounce and difficult for the non-native speaker to determine where to insert schwas when absolutely necessary.
Now, the Ferengi government and language institution maintain consistency between spelling and pronounciation (to a large extent). Due to continued scientific usage, some letters which have recently gone into disuse are still considered to be part of the alphabet and when children are taught the alphabet, they are taught to pronounce those letters, even though they would not otherwise use them in normal speech. In Modern Ferengi, the schwa is very commonly used, but it has no lexical meaning (taking the position of some of the omitted vowels when a vowel is absolutely necessary). As a result, it is not written, and has to be learned.