Xi'an alphabet

thumb|The word Xi'an written in kyexiin in xiinthle'a. 
The Xi'an alphabet is a writing system to write the Xi'an language.
The alphabet has over 200 "letters", symbols or glyphs. A letter is referred to as a kyexiin, which translates as "written symbol" Each letter has more than one form (basic, block, corner). The Xi'an writing system also has a hyphen, 'comma' (epentheses and pause), quotation and a period (full stop) mark. Proper nouns are also marked in the Xi'an script. There are a special glyph for vowel muting and a glyph equal to the ampersand (&).
Some glyphs can occur in different shapes or variants. Glyphs are grouped into blocks which form individual syllables. Often a single syllable represents an 'elemental' concept in the language, and is thus called a tai . Multiple tai can combine to form compound words. The block format is always:
*V, Vowel
*VC, Vowel - Consonant
*CV, Consonant - Vowel
*CVC, Consonant - Vowel - Consonant
Only a certain set of consonants (denoted below as those that have a 'corner form') are permitted to come at the end of a syllable. This applies to both CVC and VC syllables. Occasionally, and particularly within proper names, syllables will be compressed into a minimised number of blocks. An example of this is the word Xi'an, which in-lore has historically been written as but is now most commonly written as .
It is important to note that pitch diacritics can fundamentally change the meaning of a word. It can be sometimes very tricky to distinguish these diacritics from each other.
==Components==
===Vowels===
SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Simple pronunciation 	IPA
A 	 	 	 	a in father 	
Ā 	 	 	 	extended a in father 	
Â 	 	 	 	c in but and cut 	/
O 	 	 	 	o in cone and bone 	
Ō 	 	 	 	extended o in cone and bone 	
E 	 	 	 	e in bet, set and let 	
Ē 	 	 	 	ay in day, say and slay 	/
I 	 	 	 	ee in spree only slightly shorter	
II 	 	 	 	ee in spree 	
U 	 	 	 	u in flu 	
Ū 	 	 	 	extended u in flu 	
===Consonants===
SRX	Basic 	Block	Corner 	Pronunciation
P 	 	 	 	
K 	 	 	style="padding-left:8px"	
T 	 	 	 	
S 	 	 	 	
H 	 	 	 	
M 	 	 	style="padding-left:8px"	in him , alt:
N 	 	 	style="padding-left:8px"	
NG 	 	 	style="padding-left:8px"	in Song alt: , and singing
TH 	 	 	style="padding-left:8px"	or n with , thin
L 	 	 	 	in tell or , lit ; in dialect:
R 	 	 	style="padding-left:8px"	or in ital. 'rosa'
THL	or (rare)	 	 	+ = with love
X 	 	 	 	
XY 	 	 	 	
CH 	 	 	 	
CHY	 	 	 	No discret glyph. CH in "Cheat"
KL 	 	 	 	
KR 	 	 	 	or
Y 	 	 	 	in PYU , KYU , HYUN , NYU or , mutant or
===Diphtongs===
SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Variant	Pronunciation
AO 	 	 	 	 	
ĀO 	 	 	 	 	
OA 	 	 	 	 	
ŌA 	 	 	 	 	
AI 	 	 	 	 	
ĀI 	 	 	 	 	
EA 	 	 	 	 	
===U-Diphtongs===
SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Pronunciation
UA 	 	 	 	
UĀ 	 	 	 	
UO 	 	 	 	
UŌ 	 	 	 	
VU 	 	 	 	- Unclear whether this is the bilabial fricative or the labiodental fricative
UE 	 	 	 	
UĒ 	 	 	 	
UI 	 	 	 	
UII	 	 	 	
UAO	 	 	 	
UĀO	 	 	 	
UOA	 	 	 	
UŌA	 	 	 	
UAI	 	 	 	
UĀI	 	 	 	
UEA	 	 	 	
===Y-Diphtongs===
SRX	Basic	Block	Corner	Pronunciation
YA 	 	 	 	
YĀ 	 	 	 	
YO 	 	 	 	
YŌ 	 	 	 	
YU 	 	 	 	
YŪ 	 	 	 	
YE 	 	 	 	
YŪ 	 	 	 	
YI 	 	 	 	
YII	 	 	 	
YAO	 	 	 	
YĀO	 	 	 	
YOA	 	 	 	
YŌA	 	 	 	
YAI	 	 	 	
YĀI	 	 	 	
YEA	 	 	 	
===Special glyphs===
SRX	Glyph	Pronunciation
UTH	 	
E'E	 	
 	 	(Vowel muting)
===Numbers===
SRX	Basic	Pronunciation	SRX	Basic	Pronunciation
1 	 	 	6 	 	
2 	 	 	7 	 	
3 	 	 	8 	 	
4 	 	 	9 	 	
5 	 	 	0 	 	
===Punctuation===
Symbol	Notes
 	Full stop
 	Pause
 	Epenthesis
 	Question mark
 	Quotation marks
===Pitch and 'Capitalisation'===
These examples all use the character as the example.
Symbol	Notes
 	Proper name, i.e. Capitalisation
 	Low pitch
 	High pitch
 	Normal Fall
 	Normal Rise
 	Rise-to-high
 	Fall-to-low
 	Rise-to-fall
==See also==
*
*uo'aXy'an Lesson Two: Pronunciation and Writing
*
*Template:Kyexiin
*
* Banu glyph - the writing system of the Banu language
==References==
en:Xi%27an_alphabet