Diacritics

Diacritics are vowel markings. They were not used originally but developed for clarity. While they still mostly modify a consonant grapheme (written letter), within the Empire they are becoming more used as letters in their own right.

Pronunciation	Character	Pronunciation	Character
i (as in pig)		Long i (like ee in feet)
a (as in cat)
e (as in pet)		Long e (like the ea in pear)
ë (schwa, neutral vowel sound, like the second e in element)		Long ë (like the u in further)
o (as in pot)		Long o (as in pole)
u (as in cut)		Long u (as in prudent)
ä (like au is cause)