This story is "The North Wind and the Sun",
adapted from the booklet "The Principles of the International Phonetic
Association" (London, 1949, repr. 1966). In this booklet phonetic transcriptions
of the story are given in 50-odd languages, in order to illustrate the use of
the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
Below I shall give the story in standard
Tundrian orthography, followed by its phonetic (actually, phonemic)
transliteration and its English equivalent.
EL VENT-NORD
Ê EL SOUL
Tundrian
version - Standard spelling
El vent-nord ê el soul se dispûtavan un jûrn de
que qual d'ils yera el plus fort, quand percipuron un viatour qui s'avantzava
envelopat en sû avriyc. Li dous s'accordaron que quêil qui sûccedusse en primêr
loc en fortzar lo viatour a ostar-si lo sû avriyc serîa considerat coum el plus
fort. Pois el vent-nord comintzó a xûflar con touta sûa fortza, mâs mais il
xûflava, mais se xerrava el viatour dzintro de sû avriyc. Finalment el vent-nord
devú abandonar lo sû projêit. Dzind el soul comintzó a brillar con ardour, ê
avant pauc el viatour, tout caljat, si ostó lo avriyc. Assí el vent-nord devú
recognosceir qu'el soul yera plus fort qu'il.
PHONEMIC
TRANSCRIPTION
Some notes on Tundrian
pronunciation, in the style of the IPA booklet:
Broad [i.e. phonemic]
transcription. Primary stress is marked by inserting an apostrophe [']
before the beginning of stressed syllables. Secondary stress is not marked.
t, d, n, l are dental. r is a lingual roll. l = [ɫ]
(i.e. dark /l/ as in English ball) before consonants and at the end of words.
p, t, ʧ, k are always unaspirated. n = [ŋ] nefore k, g.
m = [ɱ] before f, v. Stressed vowels are considerably
longer than unstressed ones. Diphthongal glides are transcribed as ĭ and
ŭ. The sequence vowel + n is realized as a nasal vowel before the
consonants l, r - there are no examples in the story (i.e. the word
spelled as camra 'room, chamber' is phonemically /'kanra/, but
with a narrower phonetic transcription would be denoted as ['kãra]).
əl vɛn'nɔrd ɛ
l 'sul
əl vɛn'nɔrd ɛ l 'sul sə dispu'tavan yn 'ʒurn də
kə 'kwal dils 'jera əl plys 'fɔrt, kwɑnd pɛrʧi'pyrun ym vja'tur ki savɑn'ʦava
ɛmvəlu'pat ɛn su a'vrøĭk. li 'dus sɑkɔr'darun kə 'keĭl ki suʧə'dysə ɛm pri'mɛr
'lok ɛm fɔr'ʦar lu vja'tur a ɔs'tasi lu su a'vrøĭk sə'ria kɔnsidə'rat kum əl
plys 'fɔrt. puĭs əl vɛn'nɔrd kumin'ʦo a ʃuf'lar kun 'tuta sua 'fɔrʦa, mɑz 'maĭz
il ʃu'flava, 'maĭs sə ʃɛ'rava əl vja'tur 'ʣintru də su a'vrøĭk. final'mɛnt əl
vɛn'nɔrd də'vy abɑndu'nar lu su pru'ʒeĭt. 'ʣind əl 'sul kumin'ʦo a bri'lar kun
ɑr'dur, ɛ a'vɑnt 'pɔk əl vja'tur, tut kɑl'ʒat, si ɔs'to lu a'vrøĭk. ɑ'si əl
vɛn'nɔrd də'vy rəkunɔ'ʃir k əl 'sul 'jera plys 'fɔrt k 'il.
THE NORTH
WIND AND THE SUN
ENGLISH
VERSION
The north wind and
the sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveller came along
wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making
the traveller take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.
Then the north wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more
closely did the traveller fold his cloak around him; and at last the north wind
gave up the attempt. Then the sun shone out warmly, and immediately the
traveller took off his cloak. And so the north wind was obliged to confess that
the sun was the stronger of the two.