Eshtine

the Krohnian alphabet: the letters "eh," "y", "ee"

This is the letter "eh."

This is the letter "y."

This is the letter "ee."
These letters are closely related, as one might deduce from their shape. The ìyî character is the one exception I mentioned earlier to the one-sound-per-character ruleóand it might not be an exception at all. I have assigned it both the consonant ìyî sound and the vowel sound ìih,î but ìihî and ìehî are so similar that though I hear it in some words I may just have the pronunciation wrongóor there are regional variations. The word I tend to spell ìkahlihntehî might as easily be spelled (and sometimes I do spell it) ìkahlehntay.î Even between ìehî and ìayî there exists a realm of imprecision. Krohnian words have not taken a final, definitive form.

The shape of the ìyî is a stylized horse or deer or the like; the ìeeî is a unicorn. (Remember that the ìahî character becomes an ìayî with the addition of the horn from the ìee.î) The word for ìunicornîóìEeseefayrîóbegins with this letter. It should be noted, too, that Krohnian unicorns are notable for their hollow horns which connect to their nasal passages. An opening in the horn allows for a shrill warning note to sound through itótoo high, it is said, for anyone but another unicorn to hear. Whether this note is audible or not, ìeeî seems a particularly suitable sound to associate with these creatures.
The ìehî is this same stylized shape turned in on itselfóor perhaps it indicates an embryonic form; the sound is an ìundevelopedî one, a barely-noticed but common sound like the schwa in ìthe.î Neither it nor ìyî can exist as a one-letter word. ìEhî can, however, create the character-less sound ìhî in a way. If you put two ìehî characters next to each other, like in the word ìehehmnegoh,î when you pronounce the word you exhale the breath in betweenóìeh-HEHmnegoh.î The ìahî and ìohî sounds do the same thing, for instance in the word for ìhandîóìkohohn.î (This might also be a regionally specific pronunciation. In some places you might stop the breath there instead, as the Hawaiians do, and say it like ìkoíohnî instead of ìko-HOHN.î)
ìEeî can be a stand-alone word meaning the color ìwhiteî or the verb ìto belong.î Mostly it is used between two words to indicate there is a specific relation between them. Its closest English equivalent would be the word ìof.î ìEeseefayrî means literally ìbird-of-night,î ìeesî meaning bird and ìfayrî meaning night. Often dash marks join the words: ìtay-ee-fayrî = ìlight-of-nightî = ìstar.î