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LESSON 1: THE DUOJJIN ALPHABET
Duojjin has a 27 letter alphabet consisting of 17 consonants and 10 vowels. All of the diacritics and whatnot are not accented characters, but separate morphemes.
The full native Duojjin alphabet is: ACDEGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVYÄÅÖØŠŊ
The extended Duojjin alphabet, which is used for writing names and words of foreign origin, is: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVYZÄÅÏÖÒÓØŘŠŊΘÐÜ
The following should explain how to read the Duojjin alphabet. The format is Letter Upper/Lower Case: IPA - Explanation: Further explanation. Underlined letters in the explanation illustrate the sound being explained. I would also include the Duojjin names for the letters, but Duojjin doesn't have letter names as of yet. It's not very high priority on the to-do list.
Aa: ɑ or ɑː - car, par, start, taco: "aa" begets ɑː Bb: b - bat, barrage, cab, tabernacle: Extended alphabet only Cc: tʃ - chair, couch, scratch, catch Dd: d - dare, do, dump, cad: "djj" begets dʒ (page) Ee: ɛ or ɛː - pet, send, entertain, spent: "ee" begets ɛː Ff: f - fill, for, calf, laugh: Extended alphabet only Gg: g - gap, grace, gag, cog Hh: h or ħ - house, horror, heap, heave: Becomes very emphatic when following an r Ii: ɪ or i or iː - pin, tin, spin, hid: ɪ becomes i irregularly, with a very small amount of words Jj: j or ʒ - yes, yesterday, yoyo, year: "jj" begets ʒ (pleasure). "djj" begets dʒ (cage) Kk: k - car, crab, clock, karate Ll: l - let, love, leer, lul Mm: m - met, meet, merit, camp Nn: n - net, neat, near, nap: "ng" begets ŋ. "nk" begets ŋk Oo: o - oh, stove, toe, lone: "oo" begets oː Pp: p - par, parrot, pop, stop Qq: x - Kuchen (german), acht (german), loch (scottish), Bach (the musician): German-style CH. In handwritten Duojjin, a lower case Q should be written the same way as a capital Q, but the same size as a lower case O. Rr: r - rouge (french), purra (finnish), terra (italian), Schmarrn (German): Trilled Ss: s or z - sand, surface, span, scarce: When S appears at the beginning of a word it is read as a Z unless it is followed by a plosive consonant (p, k, t, etc). Tt: t - tread, treat, told, cat: "th" does NOT beget ð or θ Uu: u - food, lute, loot, moot: U is read as a W if it is followed by a vowel. (ie: Duojjin: dwoʒɪn) Vv: v - very, vast, verile, virus Yy - yksi (Finnish), chute (French), lyte (Swedish), blüte (German): "yy" begets yː Ää: æ - cat, rap, hat, spam: "ää" begets æː Åå: æi or ɑi or ʌi - like, my, spike, try: The three different pronunciations of this sound are allophones. It is entirely at the speaker's discretion which form to use at any given appearance of this letter. "åå" begets æiː or ɑiː or ʌiː, not æi-æi, ɑi-ɑi, or ʌi-ʌi. Ïï: ɜ - bird, permanent, entertain, murmur: "ïï" begets ɜː. Extended alphabet only Öö: ʊ - hook, took, rook, look: "öö" begets ʊː Òò: œ - høne (Danish), øl (Norwegian), Hølle (German), kønny (Hungarian): "òò" begets œː. Extended alphabet only Óó: ɒ - gone, Tom, broad, awe: "óó" begets ɒː. Extended alphabet only Øø: oi or ɔi - toy, boy, coil, spoil: "øø" begets oiː or ɔiː, not "oi-oi." The various pronunciations of this character are allophones and the decision as to which one to use is entirely at the discretion of the speaker. Řř: ɻ - red, run, ruse, roudy: Extended alphabet only Šš: ʃ - share, cash, shred, shower Ŋŋ: t̚ ˁn - gettin', pettin', settin', lettin': This sound strongly resembles the North American slang method of changing "ing" to "in'," not releasing the t, and eliminating the i and the g, effectively making words like "getting" pronounced like "gɛt̚n." This letter cannot be the first letter in a word. Θθ: θ - thesis, theory, path, bath: Extended alphabet only Ðð: ð - these, the, those, bathe: Extended alphabet only Üü: ʌ - nut, luck, rut, pumpkin: Extended alphabet only
A double consonant represents aspiration. Any syllable containing a double consonant or a double vowel is stressed.
"ei" begets what is the "ay" combination in English, and "e" on the IPA. (day, pay, etc)
LESSON 1B: STRESS ORDER
Every other syllable is stressed. If any given word should begin with its first syllable stressed or unstressed is entirely up to the speaker. Every word in a sentence does not have to have the same stress order. Double consonants and double vowels override the pattern. For example (assuming x is stressed and o is unstressed). Let's say you have a six syllable word. One could either say it using xoxoxo, or oxoxox. However, if the first syllable contains a double consonant or a double vowel, then one must use the xoxoxo stress order. If however, the second syllable contains a double consonant or a double vowel, then one must use the oxoxox stress order. If the fifth syllable contains a double consonant or double vowel, then one must use the xoxoxo stress order to facilitate the double lettered syllable. But what if say, the second and fifth syllables both have double consonants or double vowels? In this case, one would use the standard facilitating stress order, however the fifth syllable, normally being unstressed, will become stressed; creating a stress order of oxoxxx. But this isn't right. Three straight stressed syllables? No. So we take one of the regularly stressed syllables to either side of the irregularly stressed syllable and change it to unstressed. Which syllable becomes unstressed is at the discretion of the speaker. So if the second and fifth syllables of a word have double consonants or double vowels, then the stress order will become oxoxxo or oxooxo, whichever one the speaker feels more comfortable with.
I'll give you an example. Kyrrhessö'ällkunnön. This word means "everyone is born," in the infinitive. This word has six syllables. kyrr-hess-ö-äll-kun-nön. Our first syllable has a double r. So we know to start out with we'll be using the xoxoxo stress order. The second syllable also has a double s. So this syllable has to be stressed too. So at this point, our stress order is xxxoxo. We can't have three straight x's or three straight o's. So we have to get rid of one of those Xs. We can't get rid of the middle one. That's the rule. So we have to get rid of either the left one or the right one. We can't get rid of the left one, because that one has the double r. So that only leaves us with the right one, which has no double letters, so it's free to be unstressed. Now we've gone three syllables into our word and our stress order is xxoxox at this point. Our next syllable, äll, has a double l. So it has to be stressed. But our stress order already has this syllable as being stressed, so we don't need to worry about it. Just make sure you aspirate the l. Coming up to the final part of the word, "kunnön;" one might think because of the two n's that this next syllable should be stressed. However, the two n's are in two different syllables: kun-nön. So no stressing is necessary, and we can continue the default pattern throughout the rest of the word. So now we have our complete stress order: xxoxox. When a vowel appears in a syllable all by its lonesome, it can be minimalized, but it doesn't have to be.
J is the only consonant not affected by the double consonant stressing. A double J does not indicate aspiration or stress. JJ follows the regular stress order patterns, and remains unstressed even when appearing on an o syllable instead of an x syllable. Example: hänessaejj: This word means "they" in the partitive case. It has four syllables: hän-ess-a-ejj. The default stress order is xoxo. However, the second syllable has a double s. So we will use oxox instead. The last syllable has a double J. But that does NOT mean we have to stress it. So with no further modifications to make, we can continue with the default pattern until the end of the word: oxox, which does kind of result in the JJ syllable being stressed, but NOT because of the double J.
Another example. Hänejj. This word means "he/she" in the partitive. It has two syllables: hän-ejj. The default stress order is xo. The first syllable has no double letters, so we can continue to the second syllable. The second syllable, ejj, does have a double letter. So normally we would have to make this syllable stressed, resulting in an ox stress order. However, the double letter is a J, so this is not necessary. The stress order can remain as xo.
Generally speaking, one makes the first syllable in a word stressed if they can. So a word like hänejj, which can be read as either xo or ox, one would generally use the xo stress order. However, this is not exactly a "rule" per-say. One can use the ox stress order for hänejj. There could be several variables leading to one's decision for the stress order for these kinds of words. Variables like the stress order for the rest of the sentence, or comfort with morphemes or one word sentences.
I think that about covers it for the Duojjin alphabet. The next lesson will be pronouns.
_________________ ~ Rhamos Vhailejh Antellieksijim arrvvi'keödetval kyrrhessö'ällkunnön. Tuntooi'åhešška hänessa'etevåmus. Suuluejj køramiienjim tyysyvöl'työjennön. Projects: Old Dwojin (discontinued), Modern Duojjin, Pзhowз, Elemental, and an unnamed conlang (hiatus)
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