I recently uploaded a YouTube video demonstrating the sounds in my constructed language Angosey:
I ended up basing the video off of the Angosey alphabet, which has 34 characters. As anyone who’s ever tried to spell in English knows, a letter can have multiple sounds, so simply knowing the alphabet’s a poor means of knowing how to pronounce a language. Thankfully (and since I have this power), Angosey is pretty much pronounced as written. There are a few minor exceptions, and I provide examples of them in the video.
Angosey has quite a few sounds that English does not have, and it lacks some common English sounds. For example, the Angosey letters “eu” and “q” have no English equivalents (though Korean does) and the sound associated with the Angosey letter “p” only exists in some African languages. Angosey lacks the “f,” “b” and “p” sounds that English has, and “d,” “t” and “r” are noticeably different. The video shows the International Phonetic Alphabet equivalents of each Angosey sound for the linguistically inclined.
It was a very interesting experience recording the sounds. I have seldom actually tried to speak Angosey. I usually only say a word or two when I’m testing out some new sounds. I have also never heard more than a word or short sentence of Angosey spoken before (unless I was doing the speaking). So this video is really my first chance to hear it as well.
I was surprised how hard it was to pronounce. I always assumed that, simply because I had created it and tend to “hear” it in my mind when I’m writing in it, that I would be able to speak without hesitation. The opposite was true. My mind kept telling my mouth what to do, but actually producing the sounds felt unfamiliar.
I designed Angosey to sound both strange and pretty. How well did I do?
