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Topic : Re: Constructed Language - spelled like it sounds? Note: This may be more suited to Worldbuilding SE. I believe it belongs here, because it is about how to write a conlang, but if not, please - selfpublishingguru.com

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I feel like it's not really the look of the letter k so much as it is the sound. I feel like a good workaround here would be to use the sound produced by K as little as possible. To use your example, I feel that Acir (ah-SEER) is more of a soft and "Elvish"-sounding name. I think that instead of there being no letter k, the sound 'kh' should be essentially removed.

There is a reason to leave the letter in the language, and that is for words foreign to the Elvish language. For example, in Spanish, the letters W and K are not native to the language and not used in any native words, but are kept for two reasons: because Spanish uses the Latin alphabet, and because they are used in foreign words such as el wat which refers to the unit of electrical measure (the watt).

EDIT: it has been brought to my attention that my solution above would require a lot of rewriting. In response to this, I say the following:

I agree that using c instead of k makes the language look much smoother. However, using c to produce only the k sound is rather deceptive. It would be helpful, then, to use a glossary.

Personally, I feel that the letter c looks much "smoother" than the letter s, especially in the construction ce as in ice. Possibly you could use some sort of symbol (accent, umlaut, caret etc) to symbolize the pronunciation differences if you decide to allow c to use both pronunciations.

Regardless, I suggest a glossary. This will allow you to include words in the elven vernacular and define them so readers are not confused (see also: Eragon/Inheritance series).


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