Kanan is usually written with the Kanan Pinyin alphabet, an extension of the Latin alphabet using 50 letters. Below is the full Kanan Pinyin alphabet with each letter's uppercase and lowercase form.
Aa Áá Ăă Ææ Bb Cc Čč Çç Dd Ɗɗ Đđ Ee Éé Ĕĕ Ff Gg Hh Ȟȟ Ii Íí Ĭĭ Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Ƞƞ Ŋŋ Ññ Oo Óó Ŏŏ Œœ Pp Qq Rr Řř Ss Tt Uu Ůů Úú Ŭŭ Vv Ww Xx Yy Ȳȳ Zz Ʒʒ
Below is a guide that will help you learn to pronounce individual letters and digraphs.
A: Pronounced like the A in "father"
AA: The A sound is held out much longer
Á: Pronounced like the I in "ice"
Ă: Pronounced like the OU in "ounce"
Æ: Pronounced like the A in "cat"
B: Pronounced like the PS in "caps"
BB: Pronounced like the BS in "tabs"
C: Pronounced like the SH in "shop"
CC: The C sound is held out much longer
CS: Pronounced like the CH in "chop"
CZ: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
CƷ: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
Č: Pronounced like the CH in "chop"
Ç : Pronounced like the H in "huge"
ÇÇ: The Ç sound is held out much longer
D: Pronounced like the D in "day"
DȞ: When found at the beginning of a syllable, pronounced as an alveolar implosive
DT: Pronounced like the D in "day"
Ɗ: Pronounced like the TS in "cats"
Đ: Pronounced like the hard TH in "then"
E: Pronounced like the E in "elephant"
EE: The E sound is held out much longer
É: Pronounced like the A in date
Ĕ: A glide from the E in "elephant" to the U in "flute"
F: Can be pronounced as either a Spanish V, or a Spanish F (using no teeth, just lips)
FF: The F sound is held out much longer
G: Pronounced like the G in "game"
GȞ: When found at the beginning of a syllable, pronounced as a uvular implosive
GK: Pronounced like the G in "game"
H: Pronounced like the H in "behind"
Ȟ : Pronounced like the pause in "uh-oh"
ȞȞ: The stop lasts for much longer
I: Pronounced like the I in "sing"
II: The I sound is held out much longer
IJ: Pronounced like the Y in "yes"
Í: Pronounced like the word "ye"
Ĭ: Pronounced like the word "you"
J: Approximant indicator [See IJ, UJ, and ȲJ]
K: Pronounced like the K in "mako"
KG: Pronounced like the G in "game"
KH: Aspirated K, like the K in "kettle"
KK: Pronounced like the G in "game"
L: Pronounced like the L in "animal" (treated as a vowel)
LJ: Pronounced like the L in "light"
LL: The L sound is held out much longer
M: Pronounced like the M in "may"
MM: The M sound is held out much longer
N: Pronounced like the N in "night"
NN: The N sound is held out much longer
Ƞ: Pronounced like the NI in "onion"
Ŋ: Pronounced like the NG in "sing"
Ñ: Nasal vowel indicator; all vowels before Ñ are nasalized. Ñ itself is silent
O: Pronounced similar to the long O in boat, but shorter, and not gliding to a U sound
OO: The O sound is held out much longer
Ó: Pronounced like the OI in "voice"
Ŏ: Pronounced like the O in "rope"
Œ: Pronounced like the OO in "wood"
P: Pronounced like the P in "maple"
PH: Pronounced like the P in "parrot"
PP: Pronounced like the B in "boy"
Q: Pronounced like a Hebrew KH
QQ: The Q sound is held out much longer
R: Pronounced like the D's in "ladder"
Ř: Pronounced like a Spanish RR
S: Pronounced like the S in "say"
SC: Pronounced like the SH in "shop"
SS: The S sound is held out much longer
SZ: Pronounced like the Z in "zebra"
SƷ: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
T: Pronounced like a Spanish T
TD: Pronounced like the D in "day"
TH: Pronounced like the T in "tiger"
U: Pronounced like the U in "flute"
UJ: Pronounced like the W in "went"
Ů: Pronounced like the WA in "wash"
Ú: Pronounced like the word "we"
Ŭ: Pronounced like the word "woo"
V: Can be pronounced as either an English V, or an English F (using teeth and lips)
V: The V sound is held out much longer
W: Pronounced like a French R
WW: The W sound is held out much longer
X: Pronounced like the X in "box"
Y: Pronounced like the A in "about", the E in "taken", and the U in "supply"
YY: The Y sound is held out much longer
Ȳ: Pronounced like the ER in "better" (treated as a vowel)
ȲJ: Pronounced like the R in "red"
ȲȲ: The Ȳ sound is held out much longer
Z: Pronounced like the Z in "zebra"
ZC: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
ZS: Pronounced like the Z in "zebra"
ZƷ: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
Ʒ: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
ƷC: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
ƷS: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
ƷZ: Pronounced like the S in "vision"
ƷƷ: The Ʒ sound is held out much longer
Kanan also has a traditional alphabet, composed of 50 letters and 6 ligatures. The traditional Kanan alphabet corresponds directly to the Kanan Pinyin alphabet; below is a table with all 56 glyphs, with their Pinyin counterparts.
Stress Rules
Keep in mind the stress rules in Kanan. The syllable preceding the final syllable is the one that receives the stress (ex. se-vu-NO-ve). Words that do not follow this pattern must have the stressed syllable marked with a double vowel. For instance, in order to put the stress in "sevunove" on the first syllable, it would need to be respelled as "seevunove". The vowel remains pronounced the same. If a word has more than one doubled vowel syllable in it (ex. daantmĕgaar: "may it be thought of"), then all double vowel syllables will be treated as if they didn't exist, and stress will return to the penultimate syllable (so, daant-MĔ-gaar).
Diacritics
Kanan uses 3 different diacritic accents in addition to the ones found in its standard alphabet (though those are considered as separate letters of their own, and not a letter with a diacritic).
A double grave accent can be added over a letter to show that it should be doubled, and therefore stressed (For example: útoodim would be written as útȍdim).
A macron can be placed over vowels to show that an Ȳ is supposed to follow it (For example: taȳ would be written as tā). Although incorrect, in colloquial usage it is frequently used on consonants as well (For example: ʒenȳ becomes ʒen̄).
A tilde can be placed over vowels to show that a Ñ is supposed to follow it (For example: čaʒmiñ would be written as čaʒmĩ).