1.2 Spelling and Pronunciation

1.2.1 The Ayola Alphabet

Ayola is a phonetic language, which means that the words are spoken the way they are written. The Ayola alphabet has twenty-eight symbols. Ayola uses as symbols twenty-four of the twenty-six letters of the Latin alphabet (all except for q and x) and four digraphs (the two-letter combinations dj, dz, tc, and ts). No accents are used in the spelling of Ayola words. Names of non-Ayola origin are approximated using the Ayola alphabet and the stress accents – acute (´) and grave (`) - if necessary to indicate abnormal stress. The acute accent indicates that a normally unstressed syllable is stressed, whereas the grave accent indicates that a normally stressed syllable is not stressed. Interjections borrowed from natural languages may also use the stress accents.

Here is the complete alphabet, with a key to Ayola pronunciation.

Table 1.2-1 The Ayola Alphabet

Every letter is pronounced in Ayola, even in the cases of two identical consonants or vowels occurring together, as in ennaciona (national), which is pronounced as [en-na-ci-O-na], and riinventare (to reinvent), which is pronounced as [ri-in-ven-TA-re].

1.2.2 Vowels

Ayola vowels are represented by the five letters a, e, i, o and u. They are articulated in a sharp, clear fashion, regardless of stress.

a (father) la patro amare adorare

e (café) ke bele egle elektrica

i (marine) ci vino insulo infinita

o (obey) no bona okulo oktagono

u (rude) vu suko onderu uzuale

1.2.3 Consonants

Most Ayola consonants do not differ greatly from those in the Romance languages and English, but two of them deserve special comment.

1. The consonant c is always pronounced like the sound of [sh] in the English word

‘show.’

ci certe campuo

2. The consonant j is pronounced like the sound of [z] in the English word ‘azure.’

je jwi kaminajo

1.2.4 Digraphs

Four consonant sounds are spelled with two-letter combinations:

1. The ts combination is pronounced like [ts] in the English words ‘cats.’

hertso kwartso pitso

2. The dz combination is pronounced like [dz] in the English word ‘adze.’

adzo organidzare karakteridzare

3. The tc combination is pronounced like [ch] or [tch] in the English words ‘chat’ or or ‘batch.’

tcena tcibo luntcare

4. The dj is pronounced like [j] or [dj] in the English words ‘jar’ or ‘adjective.’

djinzo djurno edjo

1.2.5 Stress

Ayola vocabulary words are always pronounced with the stress on the penultimate or next-to-the-last syllable. Note the following examples where the stressed syllable is capitalized.

1.2.6 Hyphens

In Ayola, hyphens are used to

1) separate the powers-of-ten places in quantifiers and numbers as in dec-una

(eleven), trestcen-dusdec-kwino (three hundred twenty-five)

2) prevent complex words from dividing into incorrect units of meaning as in

*nonegzistityo (*no negzistityo)  non-egzistityo (nonexistence)

*nonadhera (*no nadhera)  non-adhera (non-adherent)

3) group adjectives in a multi-word adjective phrase, as in

ancien-historiway instrukto ancient-history teacher

anciena historiway instrukto ancient history-teacher

where the hyphen in the first phrase signals that the first adjective modifies

the second adjective, rather than the noun.

Hyphens are not used to group words together to make a single compound word as is done in the English compound words ‘red-white-and-blue’, ‘two-legged’ and ‘star-loving’. In Ayola ‘red-white-and-blue’ is treated by using the infix -i-: rujialbiblua; ‘two-legged’ is formed by using an initial preposition root: avdusgamba; ‘star-loving’ is treated by a combination of a relational adjective and a descriptive adjective: stelway ama. (These topics are discussed in Chapter 2.7 Adjectives.)

1.2.7 Special Cases for Word Combination

In forming complex words by combining simple words of different parts of speech, the part-of-speech endings in the words preceding other words are usually dropped, the roots placed directly adjacent to one another and pronounced without a pause or intervening sound.

en- + zgrad- + a  enzgrada indoor

av- + fol- + a  avfola leafy

However, there are two special cases:

1. The final sound of one root and the initial sound of a second root form a double consonant or double vowel.

In this case, a brief pause must be made between the two consonants or two vowels so that both of them are heard distinctly.

en- + nacion- + a  ennaciona national

ri + invent- + are  riinventare to reinvent

2) A root is unpronounceable before any consonant.

In this case, a brief neutral vowel (schwa) is inserted between the first root and the second root in pronunciation, but is not represented in the written form.

long- + fol- + y + a  longfolya long-leaved

mokr- + mur- + y + a  mokrmurya wet-walled

Exercises

Exercise 1

Determine which Ayola letter(s) translate(s) the sound of the underlined English letters. If the sound produced by the underlined letters does not exist in Ayola, write “no letter.”

Exercise 2

Determine which Ayola letter(s) translate(s) the sound of the underlined English letters. If the sound produced by the underlined letters does not exist in Ayola, write “no letter.”

Exercise 3

Underline the stressed syllable in each Ayola word. The letters have been widely spaced for ease of underlining.

1. d i c a r e

2. d i c a t s

3. d u s v e z e

4. s i k e r e t s o

5. b o v o

6. o v e r u

7. g e n a s k i t s

8. d e p a r t u n t a

9. v e k h e l i u m a

10. a m e

Exercise 4

Exercise on complex word building (regular cases and special cases)