Along with short and long vowels, some syllables in Wistra Gutisk are pronounced with a higher pitch than others. This ‘high tone’ is indicated with an accent mark above the letter ‘á’ found only in the diphthongs ‘ái’ /aI/ (sounds like ‘i’ in high) and ‘áu’ /{U/ (sounds like ‘ou’ in ouch).
In English, the last syllable of a question is pronounced with a high pitch. For example, we can hear the difference between “You see a bird.” and “You see a bird?” Notice that ‘bird’ has a higher pitch in the question form, but does not in the original.
In Wistra Gutisk the tonal vowel, or toneme, occurs in a few scenarios. These tonemes are usually the result of several different strong and weak verb inflections. For example, the weak verb nasjan ‘to save’ inflects to nasjáu and nasjái in the subjunctive 1st person singular and 3rd person singular forms respectively. Similarly, in strong verbs ‘ái’ is found in the Class I ablaut pattern in the indicative past tense singular forms, but we also find the same pattern from the aforementioned weak verb in the subjunctive. For example, the strong verb greipan ‘to seize’ inflects to the indicative 1st person singular past tense gráip, while the subjunctive 1st person singular present tense is greipáu. Both tonemes can be found in the mediopassive subjunctive present forms. The three mediopassive forms in this example are: greipáidáu, greipáizáu, and greipáindáu.
The other scenarios include strong noun declension.
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