Phonemics
Eucosmy seems to own more phonemes (18+1 vowels, 36+1 consonants) than world average. Yet they are here not for no reason: in fact, each of them is indispensable to the consistency of Eucosmesis. For example, our universe (c=137) asks us to articulate 18 vowels to fill the periodic table of elements! While those dyscosmies can afford to lack an innocent phoneme out of mere caprice (it’s their nature to do so), what a terrible logic crash for Eucosmy if here were no <q> but <c> – we would be unable to say “left” as the opposite of “right”! Another justification for keeping all the three types of plosives, affricatives and all the three levels of middles consists in neutrality. For the consonants, <d-t> (like French), <d-th> (like German), <t-th> (like Chinese), all the three oppositions exist, which means: any 2/3 choice would no doubt privilege some ethnic groups. For the vowels, Japanese has 1 middle, while Korean has 2 middles… so the only meta-ethnic way is to have 3 middles. Please don’t dwell on the number, for no problem, if any, is unsolvable with the help of phonetics.
As Mencius said, “魚與熊掌不可兼得” (the fish and the bearpaw, you can’t get both). Here, we have to choose either Eucosmesis (with a phonemic set on the level of English) or a lesser phonemic set (with dyscosmesis). Value is subjective. I prefer the bearpaw to the fish.
Vowels
| Front Unrounded | Front Rounded | Central | Back Unrounded | Back Rounded | |
| Close | <i> [i] | <ü> [y] | <_> [ɨ~ʉ] | <ï> [ɯ] | <u> [u] |
| Mid-close | <ee> [e:] | <oe> [ø:] | <eo> [ɤ:] | <oo> [o:] | |
| Middle | <e> [ɛ–] | <ö> [ɶ–] | <ä> [ə] | <ë> [ʌ–] | <o> [ɔ–] |
| Mid-open | <ae> [ɛ+:] | <oa> [ɶ+:] | <ea> [ʌ+:] | <ao> [ɔ+:] | |
| Open | <a> [a~ɑ] |
Let’s start from the default vowel, the schwa and the 5 classic vowels (Japanese-like):
<_> as after s of “snow”
<ä> as a of “a”
<a> as a of “ah”
<i> as e of “he”
<u> as o of “who”
<e> as e of “net”
<o> as o of “not”
Then, a tutorial for the 4 queer vowels (no equivalent in English):
<ü> as French u or German ü
articulate <i> with the lips as rounded as <u>
articulate <u> with the tongue as front as <i>
<ö> as French eu or German ö
articulate <e> with the lips as rounded as <o>
articulate <o> with the tongue as front as <e>
<ï> as Korean ㅡ or Russian ы
articulate <u> with the lips as unrounded as <i>
articulate <i> with the tongue as back as <u>
<ë> as Vietnamese ơ
articulate <o> with the lips as unrounded as <e>
articulate <e> with the tongue as back as <o>
Finally, nothing other than open or close of mouth from <e> <ö> <ë> <o>. It’s facultative to lengthen such 8 vowels distinguishingly: <ee> as Latin ē, <oo> as Latin ō, <ae> as Greek η, <ao> as Greek ω and so on.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| ‘ä | ‘i | ‘ee | ‘e | ‘ae | ‘a | ‘ao | ‘o | ‘oo | ‘u |
*The writing of <‘> is facultative.
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Velar | |
| Nasal | <m> [m] | <n> [n] | <q> [ŋ] |
| Plosive | <p> [p] | <t> [t] | <c> [k] |
| Plosive Voiced | <b> [b] | <d> [d] | <g> [g] |
| Plosive Aspirated | <ph> [ph] | <th> [th] | <ch> [kh] |
| Fricative Voiced | <b’> [v] | <d’> [ð] | <g’> [ɣ] |
| Fricative Aspirated | <p’> [f] | <t’> [Ɵ] | <c’> [x] |
| Glottal Voiced | <‘> [ʔ] | ||
| Glottal Aspirated | <h> [h] | ||
| Lateral | <l> [l] | ||
| Approximant or Trill | <r> [ɹ~r] | ||
| Fricative Aspirated | <sh> [ʃ] | <s> [s] | <s’> [ɕ] |
| Fricative Voiced | <zh> [ʒ] | <z> [z] | <z’> [ʑ] |
| Affricative | <szh> [ʧ] | <sz> [ʦ] | <sz’> [ʨ] |
| Affricative Aspirated | <tsh> [ʧh] | <ts> [ʦh] | <ts’> [ʨh] |
| Affricative Voiced | <dzh> [ʤ] | <dz> [ʣ] | <dz’> [ʥ] |
<q> as ng of “singer”
<p> as p of “spore”, <t> as t of “store”, <c> as c of “score”
<c’> as modern Greek χ, <g’> as modern Greek γ
<s’> as Chinese ㄒ (also the consonant of Japanese し), from which all the others are deducible
| m_ | forward |
| p_ | backward |
| n_ | up |
| t_ | down |
| q_ | left |
| c_ | right |
*The writing of <_> is facultative.
Tones
| Value | Symbol | |
| 0: Mid | ~3~ | (default) |
| 1: Low | ~1~ | – |
| 2: High | ~5~ | = |
| 3: Rising | 2~4 | < |
| 4: Falling | 4~2 | > |
Syllabic Structure
| Initial | Medial | Nucleus | Coda |
| consonants | -i- -ü- -ï- -u- | vowels | -m -p -n -t -q -c -l -r -i -u -ü -ï |
-l as German -l
-r as German -r