Lesson #1 - Basic Writing
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There are 30 Latin letters, 3 types of accents, and predictable stress.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 29 Jul 2021, 06:23.
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1. About Desterian
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The Desterian alphabet uses the Latin script, and is comprised of these 30 letters:
You may notice that some letters are simply accented forms of existing letters. They are perceived as distinct letters since they contain different pronunciations. You may also notice that some letters in the English alphabet are missing here. This is simply because those letters were deemed unnecessary.
The pronunciations of these letters are written above using the International Phonetic Alphabet, or the IPA. The IPA is an way of writing the pronunciation of symbols in any language without any ambiguity. So, a person that knows the IPA can accurately pronounce this language.
If you're unfamiliar with the IPA, here are some approximations you can keep in mind:
Most letters in the Desterian alphabet are pronounced the same in English.
<Aa>, <Ee>, <Ii>, <Oo>, and <Uu> are the five vowels found in many languages like Spanish, German, or Hindi.
<Aa> is like the long i, but only the first half.
<Ee> is like the long a, but only the first half.
<Ii> is the same as the long e.
<Oo> is like the long o, but only the first half.
<Uu> is the same as the long oo.
<Áá> is similar to the schwa in English.
<Éé> is the same as the short e.
<Íí> is the same as the short i.
<Óó> is like the English ah, but with rounded lips.
<Úú> isn't in English, but is a bit like the long oo.
<Cc> and <Gg> are always hard. They are always pronounced as k and g.
The digraph <ch> is the same as the ch sound in English.
<Çç> is the same as the sh sound in English.
The digraph <gh> is the same as the j sound in English.
<Jj> is more akin to the zh sound, like in <measure>.
<Rr> is a tapped r in American English, like in <butter>. Before a consonant, it's rolled.
<Ww> and <Yy> are written as <u> and <i> when next to a single vowel.
<Ww> and <Yy> are written as <rr> and <ll> when between vowels.
In Desterian writing, you may also see an apostrophe appear in some words. The apostrophe changes the pronunciation of a word if it's between two vowels. When this is seen, <u> and <i> won't be pronounced as <w> or <y>, and will be pronounced as two vowels in separate syllables.
The purpose of accents is to modify an aspect of the letter they go with.
There are three types of accents in Desterian:
- The acute accent (á) modifies the pronunciation of a vowel. This is used on any stressed syllable, or if a word only has one syllable.
- The grave accent (à) modifies the pronunciation of a vowel in the same way as the acute accent. This is used on any unstressed syllable.
- The circumflex accent (â) does not modify the pronunciation of a vowel. This is used on irregular stressed syllables. If the stress of a word is predictable, it is not used.
You may notice that one accent hasn't been mentioned yet; the cedilla (ç). This is because it's not used as a modfication, but to form a new letter. The letter <Çç> may look similar, but it is just as distinct to <Cc> as it is to <Jj>.
Keep in mind that these accents are essential to writing the language, and not using them can make your writing unrecognizable. They are always required for capital letters.
Stress (also known as accent or emphasis) is the prominence given to a certain syllable in a word. For example, the words <insight> and <incite> are pronounced the same. However, the former has the first syllable stressed, and the latter has the second syllable stressed.
In Desterian, the rules for stress are pretty simple:
Rule 1: If the word has an acute accent or a circumflex accent, the syllable with that accent is stressed, and the other rules are ignored.
Examples: Desári, lezêje
Rule 2: Words with three syllables or less have stress on the first syllable.
Examples: stere, lócen
Rule 3: Words with more than three syllables have stress on the third-to-last (antepenultimate) syllable.
Examples: ìndènajonal, daranìde
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