Syllable Boundaries

There are two major components of spelling in rook script. The second most important is breaking words into syllables, done by placing syllable boundaries. Every syllable has a vowel, so syllable boundaries determine which consonants correspond to which vowels. Syllable boundaries are written with · in standard romanization. For example, the word “biome|bai·oum” has a syllable boundary the only place it could possibly go. The set of consonants in a syllable that come before the vowel is known as the onset. The set of consonants that follow the vowel is the coda. If a consonant is to the left of a syllable boundary, then it is a coda consonant (of the preceding syllable), and to the right it is an onset consonant.

This page briefly overviews the factors to consider when placing syllable boundaries in rook script.

Every syllable should be pronounceable

The first rule of syllable boundaries is that you should not place letters together in a way they can’t be pronounced. For example the word “sigma” has two syllables and needs a boundary between the i and the ə. The only place it can go is between g and m, otherwise one or the other syllable has a cluster /gm/, which is unpronounceable both in onset and coda; thus we have “sigma|sig·mə”.

This rule includes avoiding clusters that are awkward or unwieldy, not just impossible. For example, the name “Magdalene|mag·də·lən” avoids placing gd together in the coda for comfort, although words like “flagged|flagd” show it is perfectly pronounceable.

Some more examples of syllable boundaries determined by this rule alone:

Latin	romanized rook	rook script
exchange	eks·cheinj
abscess	ab·ses
rashly	rash·lii
cohort	kou·hourt
singing	sing·ing
boiler	boi·lər
virus	vai·ris
backyard	bak·yaard

Differing sound realizations

The difference between onset and coda can sometimes affect the way a consonant or nearby vowel is pronounced. This is most noticeable with the letter t. At the start of words t tends to be pronounced strongly, and at the ends of words it tends to be pronounced weakly (meaning flapped, unreleased, dropped entirely, etc.). Syllable boundaries are chosen within words to reflect this difference within individual syllables: if t is the first letter of an onset it is usually pronounced strong, and if it’s in a coda it is pronounced weak. This way we see a difference between the t of “detail|dii·teil” and the t of “beaten|biit·ən”.

Several consonants also have strong effects on the vowels before them when they appear in the coda, especially r and l. And sometimes pairs of consonants have distinct pronunciations together, especially tr and dr.

Here are some examples of words where placement in onset and coda reflects different sounds made by at least one of the letters.

Latin	romanized rook	rook script
butter	bət·ər
deter	dii·tər
humanity	hyuu·man·it·ii
manatee	man·ə·tii
satin	sat·ən
sateen	sa·tiin
pearl	pər·əl
parole	pə·roul
barrel	beir·əl
payroll	pei·roul
tailor	teil·ər
Taylor	tei·lər
bedraggle	bii·drag·əl
bedrock	bed·raak

Short vowels need codas

Really this is the same principle as the first: it’s awkward to pronounce a short vowel the at the end of a word, and in rook script that is reflected on the syllable level. Officially, however, it’s less important to avoid ending a syllable on a short vowel than to avoid awkward consonant clusters, so the vowel rule has more exceptions.

The vowels that need codas are the short vowels u, i, a, and e. In stressed syllables, the letter ə needs a coda as well, as it represents the short vowel /ʌ/, though in unstressed syllables it represents the weak vowel and does not need a coda. Note that aa does not need a coda, even though its sound is sometimes called “short o”.

Some examples of syllable boundaries determined by vowel checking:

Latin	romanized rook	rook script
ledger	lej·ər
savage	sav·ij
pushy	push·ii
spatula	spat·chuu·lə

It is possible for a short vowel to be spelled without a coda. Sometimes this happens because that vowel is often pronounced as a weak vowel in practice. Some examples of words where a short vowel lacks a coda:

Latin	romanized rook	rook script
litigious	li·tij·is
satire	sa·tai·ər
metallic	me·tal·ik
yeah	ya

Relative stress

In rook script, stressed syllables attract consonants and unstressed syllables repel them. This often aligns with the rules above, but not always. Let’s see some examples.

Latin	romanized rook	rook script
basic	beis·ik
under	ənd·ər
pastry	peis·trii
active	akt·iv
survey (noun)	sərv·ei
become	bii·kəm
indeed	in·diid
restrict	rii·strikt
activity	ak·tiv·it·ii
survey (verb)	sər·vei

Morphology

This is the trickiest consideration. The problem is that in English, it’s difficult to neatly break a word into morphemes. If it were easier, rook script would have a much simpler system for syllable boundaries with morphology as a primary consideration. As it is, the rules above largely attempt to settle most morphology cases by other means. Often, morphology helps when a syllable boundary is underdetermined by considerations above. Sometimes, the syllable boundary corresponding most closely with morphology conflicts with a boundary determined by other means; in these cases rook script attempts to balance the considerations and pick the most reasonable syllable boundary.

Latin	romanized rook	rook script
backstroke	bak·strouk
aging	eij·ing
logical	laaj·ik·əl
summation	səm·ei·shən
maybe	mei·bii

Onset maximization

If the above considerations do not determine a syllable boundary, it falls to a linguistic tradition known as the principle of maximum onset. Most of the situations where this applies are between fully unstressed syllables, but there are also proper nouns and some long clusters between pairs of stressed syllables where it is relevant.

Latin	romanized rook	rook script
terrible	teir·ə·bəl
philosophy	fi·laas·ə·fii
company	kəmp·ə·nii

Placing syllable boundaries is a bit of an art, so take the considerations above into account when writing, even if you ultimately disagree with the official spelling in the rook dictionary. For personal use you may decide to use non-official spellings systematically. For example you may find “registry|*rej·ə·strii” makes more sense than “registry|rej·is·trii” (the official spelling). This is especially true for spellings made to match your own way of speaking as opposed to mine; for example some people consistently flap the /t/ in “relative|rel·ə·tiv” so they may choose to spell it “relative|*rel·it·iv” instead in personal use.

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