Hi! Welcome to the first lesson of Novoslovnica course. Here we are going to talk about sounds and the way we pronounce them in Novoslovnica. Also we'll talk about the alphabet, which is named "Azbuka" in Novoslovnica.
Sounds
Novoslovnica's phonetic system is rather wide and consists of 37 sounds. Let's show them in a table:
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Labio-velar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m /m/ | n /n/ | Nasal | |||||||
| p /p/ b /b/ | t /t/ d /d/ | k /k/ ĝ /g/ | Plosive | ||||||
| f /f/ v /v/ | θ /θ/ | s /s/ z /z/ | š /ʂ/ ž /ʐ/ | j /ʝ/ | h /x/ g /ɣ/ | Fricative | |||
| w /ʋ/ | ĵ /j/ | Approximant | |||||||
| r /r/ | Trill | ||||||||
| l /l/ | Lateral |
Vowels
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ï /i/ | y /ɨ/ ü /ʉ/ | u /u/ | Close | ||
| i /ɪ/ | ě /ɪ̈/ | ô /ʊ/ | Near-close | ||
| ë /e/ | e /ɘ/ ö /ɵ/ | o /o/ | Close-mid | ||
| ů /ə/ | Mid | ||||
| å /ʌ/ | Open-mid | ||||
| ä /æ/ | Near-open | ||||
| a /a/ | Open |
Alphabet
The Novoslovnica's alphabet consists of 54[1] letters. You can say "Wow!" about this number, but having all these letters make pronunciation phonetic. So, unlike English, you can easily read in Novoslovnica, if you learn the pronunciation of each letter.
We should say that the basic alphabet is Cyrillic, but the Latin one is also developed for western Slavs.
| Sound | Latin | Cyrillic | English words |
|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | A a | А а | |
| /a:/ | Á á | Á á | |
| /æ/ | Ä ä | Я я | |
| /ʌ/ | Å å | Å å | Cup |
| /b/ | B b | Б б | Bounce |
| /t͡s/ | C c | Ц ц | |
| /t͡ʃ/ | Č č | Ч ч | |
| /d/ | D d | Д д | Dome |
| /d͡ʒ/ | Đ đ | Џ џ | Joke |
| /ɛ/ | E e | Е е | |
| /ɛ:/ | É é | É é | |
| /e/ | Ë ë | Є є | |
| /ɪ̈/ | Ě ě | Ѣ ѣ | |
| /eŋ/ | Ę ę | Ѧ ѧ | |
| /f/ | F f | Ф ф | Phrase |
| /ɣ/ | G g | Г г | |
| /g/ | Ĝ ĝ | Ґ ґ | Agony |
| /x/ | H h | Х х | Hello |
| /ɪ/ | I i | И и | |
| /i/ | Ï ï | І і | |
| /j/ | Ǐ ǐ | Й й | Bike (the second part of a diphtong) |
| /ʝ/ | J j | Ј ј | Yellow |
| /k/ | K k | К к | County |
| /l/ | L l | Л л | Like |
| /m/ | M m | М м | Mouse |
| /n/ | N n | Н н | Narrow |
| /o/ | O o | О о | |
| /o:/ | Ó ó | Ó ó | |
| /ɵ/ | Ö ö | Ё ё | |
| /ʊ/ | Ô ô | Ô ô | |
| /p/ | P p | П п | Pound |
| /ps/ | Ѱ ѱ | Ѱ ѱ | |
| /r/ | R r | Р р | |
| /rʐ/ | Ř ř | Ҏ ҏ | |
| /s/ | S s | С с | Sound |
| /ʂ/ | Š š | Ш ш | Shy |
| /d͡z/ | Ŝ ŝ | Ѕ ѕ | |
| /t/ | T t | Т т | Tone |
| /θ/ | Ŧ ŧ | Ѳ ѳ | Theory |
| /u/ | U u | У у | |
| /u:/ | Ú ú | Ӯ ӯ | |
| /ʉ/ | Ü ü | Ю ю | You |
| /ə/ | Ů ů | Ъ ъ | |
| /uŋ/ | Ų ų | Ѫ ѫ | |
| /v/ | V v | В в | Volume |
| /ʋ/ | W w | Ў ў | Cow |
| /ks/ | X x | Ќ ќ | Text |
| /ɨ/ | Y y | Ы ы | |
| /z/ | Z z | З з | Zoo |
| /ʐ/ | Ž ž | Ж ж |
You see that here are only 51 letters. These are all you need to write in Latin Novoslovnica's sentences. But the Cyrillic variant has some additional letters that are reproduced by digraphs in Latin.
| Latin | Cyrillic |
|---|---|
| Št | Щ |
| Jï | Ї |
| Ј (soft symbol) | Ь |
Also Novoslovnica has one old letter - nasal I - Į (i), which existed in the alphabet, but is reproduced by "I" or "IN" now.
Related links
References
- ↑ Novoslovnica as a project of a panslavic language, The reader gets acquainted with the system of phonetics and grammar.