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Alphabet of Novoslovnica

Alphabet

Let’s summarize what we have known about Novoslovnica phonology. Afterwards we will get the list of phonemes and allophones and their connections with Novoslovnica letters in the alphabet.

We have learned that Novoslovnica has 51 consonant sounds and 22 vowels. 13 consonants and 4 vowels are allophones among them. Hence, the amount of phonemes is (51—13) + (22 – 4) = 56 phonemes.

You should know that in Novoslovnica, soft and hard consonants do not differ in writing. That is because of the fact that by the combination of «consonant + vowel» we can always determinedly get what the consonant is like – hard or soft. With this information, the amount of letters needed is reduced to 49.10

Nevertheless, let’s now look at the table with the alphabet list and see how Novoslovnica is written.

Alphabet of Novoslovnica

Note, that the Cyrillic letters Щ, Ψ, Ќ, Ї in earlier versions of Novoslovnica have been replaced by Шт (Št), Пс (Ps), Кс (Ks) and Ји (Jі).11

Pronunciation

Novoslovnica is a phonetic language, that’s why Novoslovnica has an important rule, which you have to apply to speaking in Novoslovnica.

Rule n. 3: All words are pronounced as they are written.

This rule means that you cannot reduce sounds when speak in Novoslovnica. It is a very important thing because you can make mistakes if you speak improperly. There are some exceptions but they all will be mentioned in this guidebook.

When you pronounce a word you are not restricted to use only main sounds – if it’s more comfortable, you can pronounce allophones with the same level of softness and sonority with the main sound of the letter. Let’s look at the examples below to understand what we can choose in speaking and what we cannot.

Examples:

– okolo [o`kolo] – around

– čujstvo [`t̠ʃujstvo] – feeling

However, you are restricted in what consonant sounds to use from the allophone list. You can see the next rule which will help you to speak.

Rule n. 4: You cannot mess soft and hard consonants when you pronounce a word.

This prohibit you to make hard consonants when you need a soft one, or to use a soft one when you need a hard one. Here you can see a table, where it is shown which sound you must pronounce in different combinations of letters.

Soft and hard vowel-consonant pairs

Some features

I and Ï

Many people will surely be confused by these two letters. They will ask whether there is the rule when we need to write the first ot the second one. However, you should look up and remember that these both letters produce different sounds. And that is the point.

The first letter produces the soft sound «I» while the second one stands for the hard sound. But the question is, where are used such sounds? We can’t list the rules for usage these letters in the root, because it is an etymological issue. However, we can list some prefixes and suffixes that contain either a soft or a hard letter.

Marks for writing «I»:

Prefixes

– Iz

Suffixes

– Nic

– Nik

– Itelj

– I

Conjunction

– I

– Ili

– Či

– Li

Marks for writing «Ï»:

Prefixes

– Nïz

Suffixes

– Ïc (female animals)

Latin and Cyrillic

You can see in table 1.8 that Novoslovnica utilizes two alphabets- the Latin one and the Cyrillic one. They both are practically equal, but is there is a preferred alphabet for the language? The answer is «yes», Cyrillic is preferable.

The reasons of choosing such a script goes back in history. There were two scripts in the beginning of Slavic writing: the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts. They were created to cover all the sounds that existed in that era of Slavic languages. Glagolitic script practically has no borrowed letters from other writing systems- all letters are unique.

By this case in Cyrillic and Glagolitic scripts we can find the bijective mapping between sounds (phonemes) and letters. Latin script does not provide such orthography in any Slavic language which uses the Latin script.

For example:

– «ch» for [x], while «c» is for [ts] and h is for [x]

– «sz» for [ʂ], while «s» is for [s] and «z» is for [z]

Novoslovnica provides an artificial Latin script system, where the bijective mapping has almost been achieved. The Latin alphabet can seem strange or uncomfortable to native Slavs 12(though it can be used rather conveniently by non-Slavs). That’s why the Glagolitic or Cyrillic script should be used primarily.

Why hasn’t the Glagolitic script been mentioned yet? The same reason that the Latin script should not be used primarily: to prevent misunderstanding. Nowadays only one in a hundred Slavs can understand the Glagolitic script because all of its letters are original. That’s why this language, which has the goal of being used on the international level, cannot use Glagolitic script as its primary script.

The only script, that satisfies all the requirements to be the primary script of this Slavic constructed language, is the Cyrillic alphabet. In this book you will find many examples in different paragraphs. First you will see a primary (Cyrillic) variant of the example in normal font and then a Latin one in grey italic font. This will help you to learn primary script of Novoslovnica quickly. Nevertheless, if we speak about exact letters or letter combinations, I will write them only in Latin for not to mess the text of the book.

Now you know the sounds and the letters which are used in Novoslovnica and you are ready to go deeper!

10

G. Carpow and R. Gasparyan, «Pǒzǐckóva i zvu˛kore˛dna ote˛̌zǩe vu˛tře prob̌egu búdovan¨a meduslov̌enskoga jazyka,» SLOVJANI.info, 2017 (2019).

11

Cyrillic has two different letters Ь and J that have different functions – the first one defines that the previous consonant is soft (we need this in case vowel is absent) and the second defines a [ʝ] sound. Latin version that you see in the table has no such difference, so you should remember, that J means a soft symbol when you see a C-«J» -C row (where C is for «Consonant») and means a [ʝ] sound when you see a C-«J» -V (where V is for «Vowel»), or use Cyrillic to prevent such a collision. Only in the first case consonant before J is soft while in the second one it is hard.

12

Latin script is very habitual for South Slavs and native for West Slavs.