ca + dor (room + sleep) = bedroom. Phonology and orthography Dutton orthography is irregular. It is combined with phonology below. Stress Stress is on the first syllable (first vowel), except that the opposite suffix -o is always stressed, and the verbal prefixes u- (present participle) and y- (past tense) are never stressed. Vowels Vowels are rather similar to Latin. When a vowel occurs at the end of a morpheme or before another vowel, it is long, otherwise, it is usually short (though some suffixes shorten a preceding morpheme-final vowel). Vowel length for the most part not phonemic, but are determined by position. However, there is morphophonemic contrast in a few cases where a root word contrasts with a suffixed word, with suffixes that do not shorten the vowel. For example, pad "paid" (pa "pay" + -d passive participle) vs pad "pad"; sud" "improved' ( "su" + -d passive participle) vs sud "sudden". Only au and y are diphthongs. Other sequences of vowels are pronounced in separate syllables, e.g. eis "ice" is . Vowel sequences in roots are ei, eu, oi, oe, ui, ue, ia, io, iu. The sequences ie, uo are found in written contractions, but may not be pronounced that way since all written contractions should be pronounced in full. "Y" is a consonant in ye "yes" and in y "was, were" only. Consonants Consonants are mostly as in the IPA; e.g., s is always voiceless, as in "less", g is always hard, as in "get", and r is trilled, as in Scots and Italian. Exceptions: c is (as in "itch") j is (as in French) q is (as in "quick") sh is (as in English) x is (as in English) Words spelled as a single consonant are usually pronounced as that consonant plus a "very short ee" before a vowel, and as that consonant + schwa otherwise, clearly mirroring Dutton's pronunciation of the e in "the." The suffixes -r (agent) and -z (plural) are pronounced with a preceding schwa when they follow a consonant. do not occur in final position. only occurs in final position in an unwritten affix. A nasal occurs (in final position only) in two affixes, but is not written in either. (See below.) occurs initially in just two words, ye and y; finally it arguably ends the diphthong y. The letter w does not occur in final position, but arguably ends the diphthong