Pronunciation

Words in many languages, including those in Covilhã’s own Portuguese, are commonly written with diacritical marks, the little lines, dots, and squiggles around the plain letters. They provide a guide to pronunciation and are also used in the romanization of Arabic and other non-Latin scripts. This appendix is a guide for the pronunciation of letters with these diacritical marks as used in the novel. Please note that the information provided here is strictly supplementary. It is not needed to understand the novel. If you don’t care how foreign words are pronounced, just ignore these marks.

Diacritical Marks in Portuguese and Spanish

A diacritical mark is a glyph added to a letter that tells you how that letter is to be pronounced.

The tilde in Portuguese indicates nasalization of the base vowel, such as in ã /ɐ̃/ and õ /õ/. So the last letter of our protagonist’s name, Covilhã, would be pronounced /ɐ̃/ (see IPA pronunciation below). In Spanish though, the letter ñ, called énye or eñe is a letter of its own pronounced /ˈeɲe/ and sounds similar to /nj/ in our English “onion” /ˈʌnjən/.

Portuguese uses the circumflex to stress high vowels ‘â’ /ɐ/, ê /e/, and ‘ô’ /o/. The acute accent is used to stress low vowels, such as ‘á’ /a/, ‘é’ /ɛ/, ‘ó’ /ɔ/, ‘í’ /i/, and ‘ú’ /u/. The grave accent is only used over a (à). The cedilha (Spanish cedilla) is used under c (ç) when pronounced as /s/ instead of /k/.

IPA – International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation based on the Roman script. I have used it in the Glossary and Characters list on prestejoao.com after words that are particularly difficult to pronounce by English speakers. The broad, phonemic transcription standards have been applied within slashes. Here is an example:

Covilhã, Pêro da (say “peroo duh cooviyuh,” IPA /ˈpeɾu dɐ kuviˈʎɐ̃/): …

This bold header shows how the name of our protagonist is written and pronounced in Portuguese. The name in quotation marks is an easy-to-say approximation, while the IPA notation within the slashes shows precisely how to say it out loud.

Transcription

Transcription, often called transliteration, is the romanization of non-roman scripts to represent the sounds (not the written characters) of the words in Arabic, Amharic, or other scripts.

Arabic Romanization and Pronunciation

I have romanized the Arabic words in Covilhã’s Secret Journal using the American Library Association, Library of Congress standards (ALA-LC). It only has two diacritics, the macron (horizontal line above the letter) and the underdot (dot below the letter), besides the hamzah (ʾ) and ʿayn (ʿ) glottal stops.

Please note that my pronunciation examples in the table below can only reproduce an approximation of the sound in Arabic. However, the phonetic notation of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can come close to the original sounds. The table below shows the romanization and pronunciation of Arabic letters:

Arabic Letter	Letter Name	Roman- ization	IPA Symbol	Pronunciation Examples (based on Wahiddudin’s Web)*
ـَ	fatḥah	a	/a/	‘a’ as in Spanish “Argentina”
ا	alif	ā	/aː/	‘a’ as in “father”
ب	bāʼ	b	/b/	‘b’ as in “boy”
د	dāl	d	/d/	‘d’ as in “dog”
ض	ḍād	ḍ	/dˤ/	heavy ‘d’ as in “duh” with open jaw
ذ	dhāl	dh	/ð/	‘th’ as in “the”
ف	fāʼ	f	/f/	‘f’ as in “fish”
غ	ghayn	gh	/ɣ/	gargling sound
ه	hāʼ	h	/h/	‘h’ as in “hat”
ح	ḥāʼ	ḥ	/ħ/	heavy ‘h’, gutturally aspirated
ـِ	kasrah	i	/i/	‘I’ as in “sit”
ـِي	kasra yā’	ī	/i:/	‘ee’ as in “deep””
ج	jīm	j	/d͡ʒ/	‘j’ as in “jar”
ك	kāf	k	/k/	‘k’ as in “kitt”
خ	khāʼ	kh	/x/	‘ch’ as in Scottish “loch”
ل	lām	l	/l/	‘l’ as in “look”
م	mīm	m	/m/	‘m’ as in “man”
ن	nūn	n	/n/	‘n’ as in “nurse”
ق	qāf	q	/q/	guttural ‘q’ as in “queen”
ر	rāʼ	r	/r/	‘r’ rolled like Spanish “rata” (not quite as in “perro”)
س	sīn	s	/s/	‘s’ as in “sea”
ص	ṣād	ṣ	/sˤ/	heavy ‘s’ as in “hiss” with open jaw
ش	shīn	sh	/ʃ/	‘sh’ as in “ship”
ت	tāʼ	t	/t/	‘t’ as in “toy”
ط	ṭāʼ	ṭ	/tˤ/	heavy ‘t’ with open jaw
ث	thāʼ	th	/θ//	‘th’ as in “think”
ـُ	ḍammah	u	/u/	‘u’ as in “put”
ـُو	wāw	ū	/u:/	‘oo’ as in “boot”
و	wāw	w	/w/	‘w’ as in “water”
ي	yāʼ	y	/j/	‘y’ as in “yarn”
ز	zayn	z	/z/	‘z’ as in “zebra”
ظ	ẓāʼ	ẓ	/ðˤ/	heavy ‘th’ with open jaw
ء	hamzah	ʾ	/ʔ/	glottal stop like an emphatic ‘h’ in “hour”**
ع	ʻayn	ʿ	/ʕ/	harsh and deep glottal stop**

* The Beautiful Names of Allah (https://wahiduddin.net/words/99_pages/app_a_pronunciation.htm).
** These two Arabic glottal stops, the hamzah (ʾ) and ʿayn (ʿ), are difficult to reproduce in many languages, such as English.
If a very good pronunciation is important to you, look up a given word on the Internet and hear native speakers.

Amharic Romanization and Pronunciation

The main language of Abyssinia was Amharic (and still is in today’s Ethiopia), which has its own script. There is no agreed way of transcribing Amharic into Roman script. I have romanized Amharic words in the novel based various standards, but with my own simplifications. Thus, infrequent and intricate Amharic letter combinations are not reflected here.

The vowel order merely reflects the consonant-vowel sequence, as vowels are not written separately in Amharic. The table below shows the romanization of the Amharic vowels I have embraced because of their logic and simplicity (the letters in parentheses are from alternative romanization systems included only as examples you might find elsewhere):

Vowel Order	Romanization	IPA	English Approximation
First Order	ä (e, eh)	/ɛ/ ~ /ə/	‘a’ in “sat”
Second Order	u (ou, oo)	/ʊ/ ~ /u/	‘oo’ in “foot” or “soon”
Third Order	i (ī, ii, ee)	/i/	‘ea’ in “seat”
Fourth Order	a (ah)	/ä/	‘a’ in “bar”
Fifth Order	e, (é, ie, ié)	/(ʲ)e/	‘a’ in “way” (without gliding into the ‘y’)
Sixth Order	ə (i, ih)	/ɨ/ ~ /ə/	‘e’ in “roses”
Seventh Order	o (oh or au)	/o/ (/ɔ/)	‘oa’ in “boat” or the ‘au’ in “maul”

Amharic Abugida

An abugida is an alpha-syllabary or segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, modified by a vowel notation. For further information, see Omniglot for a good representation of the abugida and IPA pronunciation including audio.

The table below is adapted from various sources (please note that the letters in the header as well as those in the first column are my simplified romanizations, e.g. ባሕር = bahәr, “sea,” agreeing with IPA; the letters in parentheses are from alternative romanization systems included only as examples you might find elsewhere; also the ‘ə’ is sometimes silent):

Roman- ization	ä	u	i	a	e	ə	o	IPA	English Approximation
b	በ	ቡ	ቢ	ባ	ቤ	ብ	ቦ	/b/	‘b’ as in “bed”
ch (č, tʲ)	ቸ	ቹ	ቺ	ቻ	ቼ	ች	ቾ	/t͡ʃ/	‘ch’ as in “church”
cḥ (č̣, č’, ṭʲ)	ጨ	ጩ	ጪ	ጫ	ጬ	ጭ	ጮ	/t͡ʃʼ/	‘ch’ as in “achoo”
d	ደ	ዱ	ዲ	ዳ	ዴ	ድ	ዶ	/d/	‘d’ as in “dad”
f	ፈ	ፉ	ፊ	ፋ	ፌ	ፍ	ፎ	/f/	‘f’ as in “far”
g	ገ	ጉ	ጊ	ጋ	ጌ	ግ	ጎ	/g/	‘g’ as in “go”
h	ሀ	ሁ	ሂ	ሃ	ሄ	ህ	ሆ	/h/	‘h’ as in “how”
h (ḫ)	ኀ	ኁ	ኂ	ኃ	ኄ	ኅ	ኆ
h (ḥ)	ሐ	ሑ	ሒ	ሓ	ሔ	ሕ	ሖ
h (kh)	ኸ	ኹ	ኺ	ኻ	ኼ	ኽ	ኾ
j (ǧ)	ጀ	ጁ	ጂ	ጃ	ጄ	ጅ	ጆ	/d͡ʒ/	‘j’ as in “judge”
k	ከ	ኩ	ኪ	ካ	ኬ	ክ	ኮ	/k/	‘k’ as in “king”
l	ለ	ሉ	ሊ	ላ	ሌ	ል	ሎ	/l/	‘l’ as in “let”
m	መ	ሙ	ሚ	ማ	ሜ	ም	ሞ	/m/	‘m’ as in “match”
n	ነ	ኑ	ኒ	ና	ኔ	ን	ኖ	/n/	‘n’ as in “now”
ñ (ṇ, ň, gn, ny)	ኘ	ኙ	ኚ	ኛ	ኜ	ኝ	ኞ	/ɲ/	‘ni’ as in “onion” or ‘ñ’ as in Spanish “niño”
p	ፐ	ፑ	ፒ	ፓ	ፔ	ፕ	ፖ	/p/	‘p’ as in “pin”
p̣ (p’, p)	ጰ	ጱ	ጲ	ጳ	ጴ	ጵ	ጶ	/pʼ/	‘pp’ as in “upper”
q (ḳ, k’, k)	ቀ	ቁ	ቂ	ቃ	ቄ	ቅ	ቆ	/kʼ/	‘k’ as in “ski”
r	ረ	ሩ	ሪ	ራ	ሬ	ር	ሮ	/ɾ/	‘r’ as in Spanish “pero” or (not rolled)
ṛ (r’)	ረ	ሩ	ሪ	ራ	ሬ	ር	ሮ	/r/	‘rr’ as in Spanish “perro” (rolled)
s	ሰ	ሱ	ሲ	ሳ	ሴ	ስ	ሶ	/s/	‘s’ as in “sight”
s (ś)	ሠ	ሡ	ሢ	ሣ	ሤ	ሥ	ሦ	/s/	‘s’ as in “sight”
ṣ (ts, ts’, tz)	ጸ	ጹ	ጺ	ጻ	ጼ	ጽ	ጾ	/t͡sʼ/	‘zz’ as in “pizza”
ṣ (ts, ts’, ṣ́)	ፀ	ፁ	ፂ	ፃ	ፄ	ፅ	ፆ	/t͡sʼ/	‘zz’ as in “pizza”
sh (š, ʃ)	ሸ	ሹ	ሺ	ሻ	ሼ	ሽ	ሾ	/ʃ/	‘sh’ as in “short”
t	ተ	ቱ	ቲ	ታ	ቴ	ት	ቶ	/t/	‘t’ as in “talk”
ṭ (t’, t)	ጠ	ጡ	ጢ	ጣ	ጤ	ጥ	ጦ	/tʼ/	‘t’ as in “stick”
v	ቨ	ቩ	ቪ	ቫ	ቬ	ቭ	ቮ	/v/	‘v’ as in “vault”
w	ወ	ዉ	ዊ	ዋ	ዌ	ው	ዎ	/w/	‘w’ as in “walk”
y	የ	ዩ	ዪ	ያ	ዬ	ይ	ዮ	/j/	‘y’ as in “yes”
z	ዘ	ዙ	ዚ	ዛ	ዜ	ዝ	ዞ	/z/	‘z’ as in “zoo”
zh (ž, s, j, g)	ዠ	ዡ	ዢ	ዣ	ዤ	ዥ	ዦ	/ʒ/	‘s’ as in “pleasure”
‘ or ’	አ	ኡ	ኢ	ኣ	ኤ	እ	ኦ	/ʔ/	‘uh’ or ‘oh’ as in “uh-oh” (glottal stop)
‘ or ’	ዐ	ዑ	ዒ	ዓ	ዔ	ዕ	ዖ	/ʔ/	‘uh’ or ‘oh’ as in “uh-oh” (glottal stop)

Romanization of Swahili, Indian, and Other Languages

Pêro da Covilhã was a native speaker of Portuguese. He also spoke Spanish like a native, and was fluent in Arabic, as he spent his youth in and around Seville and al-Andalus. Later, he visited Castile and the Maghrib on various occasions as well. Furthermore, he could read and write in these languages. He probably also spoke Sabir and some Catalan and Italian variants.

Although Covilhã may have picked up some Indian-language words and may have learned some Swahili terms during his travels, I decided that research into these languages and attempts to impart their rules of transcription and pronunciation would go beyond the scope of this novel.

Therefore, I have taken the romanization of these languages as encountered in the source literature, but wherever available, I have included the IPA pronunciation.