Wenedyk uses the Polish alphabet, which consists of the following 32 letters:
| A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż |
Besides, there are six "fixed" consonant clusters:
| Ch Cz Dz Dź Rz Sz |
| character | description | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| a | open front unrounded vowel | a |
| e | open-mid front unrounded vowel | E |
| i | close front unrounded vowel | i |
| o | open-mid back rounded vowel | O |
| u | close back rounded vowel | u |
| y | almost fully close front unrounded vowel | I |
| ą | nasalised open-mid back rounded vowel (1) | o~ |
| ę | nasalised open-mid front unrounded vowel (1) | e~ |
| character | description | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| b | voiced bilabial stop | b |
| c | unvoiced dental/alveolar affricate (2) | t_s |
| ć | unvoiced prepalatal affricate | t_s\ |
| d | voiced dental stop | d |
| f | unvoiced labiodental fricative | f |
| g | voiced velar stop | g |
| h | unvoiced velar fricative (3) | x |
| j | palatal approximant | j |
| k | unvoiced velar stop | k |
| l | alveolar lateral approximant | l |
| ł | labiovelar approximant | w |
| m | bilabial nasal | m |
| n | dental/alveolar nasal | n |
| ń | palatal nasal | J |
| p | unvoiced bilabial stop | p |
| r | alveolar vibrant | r |
| s | unvoiced dental sibilant (2) | s |
| ś | unvoiced prepalatal sibilant | s\ |
| t | unvoiced dental/alveolar stop | t |
| w | voiced labiodental fricative | v |
| z | voiced dental sibilant (2) | z |
| ź | voiced prepalatal sibilant | z\ |
| ż | voiced postalveolar sibilant (4) | Z |
| ch | like h | |
| cz | unvoiced postalveolar affricate (4) | t_S |
| dz | voiced dental/alveolar affricate (2) | d_z |
| dź | voiced prepalatal affricate | d_z\ |
| dż | voiced postalveolar affricate (4) | d_Z |
| rz | like ż | |
| sz | unvoiced postalveolar sibilant (4) | S |
I will not elaborate here about the interference between the different sounds. More about the phonological development of Wenedyk from Vulgar Latin can be found in my Grand Master Plan (a term borrowed from other conlangers who created Romance languages based on regular sound changes from Latin).
Stress is almost always placed on the penultimate syllable of a word. The combination of a preposition with a pronoun is treated as one entity: when the latter consists of only one syllable, the preposition is stressed, otherwise it remains unstressed.
(1) Ą and ę are rarely pronounced as real nasal vowels. Normally, they assimilate with the following consonant: kątar is pronounced as ['kOntar], lęgwa as ['lENgwa], kąp as [kOmp], przędzier as ['pSEJd_z\er], etc. At the end of a word ą is usually pronounced [O], followed by a very short and slightly nasalised [U] [OU(~)], while ę normally sounds like [E].
(2) It depends on the speaker, but in general s, z, c, and dz, are pronounced like dental spirants. An alveolar pronunciation would not be incorrect, though.
(3) There is no difference in pronunciation between ch and h. The pronunciation [x] is not entirely adequate, because there is less friction involved than in a real fricative.
(4) Some people call them retroflexes, others call them postalveolars or alveolars; for the sake of convenience I call them postalveolars.