Lesson 0 - Spelling and pronunciation This lesson should explain the sounds and writing system of gjax-zym-byn (gzb) more simply, assuming no linguistics background, than the more technical description in the link: phonology.htm "Phonology & writing system" document. The writing system is phonemic. Every sound (or group of sounds which can be used interchangeably) is represented by a single letter, and every letter almost always represents the same sound (though there are some minor variations in the way a few letters are pronounced in certain contexts; see the Phonology document for details). gzb has three writing systems, but if you're learning gzb you can probably get by with learning only the Unicode system, at least at first. The link: http://groups.google.com/group/gjax-zym-byn/files/ handwritten alphabet is not described here; the ASCII writing system is briefly described below in parallel with the primary Unicode-based alphabet. There are only 26 lowercase letters in ASCII, so 24 of the letters of gzb are represented by plain ASCII characters a, b, c... z while 28 others are represented by base letters plus x or q. So keep in mind that combinations like tx, sx, pq represent a single sound (like th, sh in English; except that h also represents its own sound in English, while x and q have no other meaning in gzb). These letters have about the same sound in gzb as in English: p b t d k g f v m n z s w h l r These represent sounds also found in English. cx c__x ch in "church" tx t__x th in "bath" dx t__x th in "this" sx s__x sh in "hush" c c ts in "cats" zx z__x dz sound in "rides" nx n__x ng in "thing" j j y in "yard" or "boy" jx j__x s in "pleasure" These sounds aren't found in English, or aren't so distinctive there. kx k__x A sound like English "k", but with the tongue further back in the mouth; most similar to the final sound in English "back" as distinct the inital sound in "call", the latter of which is represented by gzb "k". px p__x Air blown through the lips. A short raspberry. hx/hq h__x / h__q Similar to the "ch" in German "ach". sq/jq s__x / j__q Similar to the "ch" in German "ich", or the "h" in Japanese "hito". cq/zq c__x / z__q Similar to sq/jq, but starting with a sound like t/d, merging into the "ich" sound. Ejective: kq k__q Place your tongue as for /k/ and close your glottis, build up some pressure between the glottis and tongue, and then release the air past your tongue suddenly. Clicks: Produce these sounds by closing your lips, or pressing your tongue against some part of your mouth, then sucking to make a partial vacuum, and suddenly opening the space closed by your tongue or lips. lq l__q front of tongue pulled from roof of mouth tq t__q tip of tongue pulled from between teeth pq p__q lips pulled apart suddenly mq m__q similar as {pq}, but with air released through the nose at the same time. Vowels: iq i__q pIck ax a__x tAp rq r__q buttER e e lEt eq e__q Ago, bUt a a spA u u sUItcase i i machIne y y bOOk o o pOke oq o__q rAW, cOUgh The tense vowels {i, o, u, oq} occur without the following "y" or "w" sound they usually have in English. Some of them also occur in those forms, but they mean different things. i at (pronounced as in French or Spanish "si") ij near (pronounced as in English "see") su standing up (pronounced like French "sou") suw enjoyment of something/someone's cuteness (pronounced like English "Sue") Many diphthongs (a vowel plus "j" (y) or "w") occur in gzb. Here are some with English similars. ej way aj sky axw cow oj boy yj buoy These base vowels don't occur in English; here are French examples. ****TODO fix this because auto convert won't handle ix that isn't part of a gzb word ix tu ("i" with rounded lips) ox soeur ("e" with rounded lips) {nq} following a vowel means that it is pronounced nasalized. More French examples: onq son axnq faim etc. If any syllable of a word is nasalized, so are all the others. So {nq} is written only once in any root word, after the last vowel. Stress is not very important (it doesn't change what a word means, as it sometimes does in English), but .................... rewrite There are two exceptions: if the first syllable of the main root word has the vowel {ix} or a schwa {eq} followed by nasal consonant or semivowel (i.e., one of {nx n m j w}) then it gets the primary stress. (There are other exceptions too, but those are the only ones simple enough to describe briefly here.) gjax-zym-byn has its own unique punctuation system, which overlaps with English in a few places. = Each sentence ends in . Questions begin with ? Requests or commands begin with ! Emphasized statements begin with * Curly brackets { } are used around quotations like "" in English. They can be nested for quotes within quotes. A dash is used to separate the roots in a compound word. kriq-tla a writer or artist (from {kriq}, to write or create, and {-tla}, a professional) runx-zox to go (root {runx}, motion, and the active verb suffix {-zox}) A single quote ' is used between syllables of root words with two or more syllables. (Always in the ASCII orthography; it's sometimes omitted in the Unicode orthography.) rix'max house cxeq'txax day The colon ':', semicolon ';', comma ',' and parentheses '( )' are used mostly as in English. ..........TODO commas in abbreviations ------ Exercises Read aloud these gjax-zym-byn words. ....................a set of words fairly common in the corpus which among them demonstrate all vowels and most consonants. maybe some minimal pairs. ..........