Phonology & Script

Phonology & Script

For each sound in Meσoγeóiκa, there is a corresponding letter. Some letters have two sounds nevertheless; it is clear which sound the letter represents. There are 38 letters in the alphabet. These characters are taken from the Roman, Greek and Cyrillic alphabets. To view these webpages correctly, it is best to set your browser to Unicode. The two rows of letters below should be identical. The latter one is an image.

Aa Ββ Бб Γγ Cc Dd Δδ Ee Ff Gg

Ζζz Hh Θθ Ιι Jj Κκ Λλ Μμm Nn Ээ Ξξ

Oo Ππ Qq Ьь Ъъ Ρρ Rr Σσς Ss Ττ Yy

Φφ Uu Vv Цц Чч Яя Χχ Ψψ Ωω

ALPHABET: NAME AND PRONUNCIATION OF LETTERS

Letter	Name	Approximate Pronunciation	IPA Values	SAMPA Values
Aa	A	Father, but shorter	[a]	[a]
Ββ	Be	Voice	[v]	[v]
Бб	Бe	Bin	[b]	[b]
Γγ	Γa	1) rough G, voiced ch in loch	[γ]	[G]
Cc	Ce	Joke	[ʤ]	[dZ]
Dd	De	Drink	[d]	[d]
Δδ	Δe	Then	[ð]	[D]
Ee	E	Egg	[ɛ]	[E]
Ff	Éffe	Hands	[dz]	[dz]
Gg	Ge	1) Good 2) after E, I; S as in pleasure	[ɡ] [ʒ]	[g] [Z]
Zζz*	Ze	Zoo	[z]	[z]
Hh	Háqe	House	[h]	[h]
Θθ	Θe	Thin	[θ]	[T]
Ii	I	1) fig 2) yellow	[i] [j]	[i] [j]
Jj	Ja	Pleasure	[ʒ]	[Z]
Κκ	Κa	Skill (unaspirated)	[k]	[k]
Λλ	Éλλe	Look	[l]	[l]
Μμm*	Éμμe	Moon	[m]	[m]
Nn	Énne	1) Noon 2) Before G, Κ Γ, and Χ: song	[n] [ŋ]	[n] [N]
Ээ	Э	Exactly as ea in Seat. This is different from I above.	[iː]	[i:]
Ξξ	Ξe	Locks	[ks]	[ks]
Oo	O	Φως (Fos) (Greek)	[ɔ]	[O]
Ππ	Πe	Spill (unaspirated)	[p]	[p]
Qq	Qu	Shake	[ʃ]	[S]
Ьь	Móλλo Σígno	Before all vowels except E and I, this letter softens preceding g or κ to s as in pleasure and s as in sand respectively	--	--
Ъъ	Dúρo Σígno	Before E and I, this letter hardens preceding κ or g to κ as in sky and g as in begin respectively	--	--
Ρρ	Éρρe	Greek R	[ɾ]	[4]
Rr	Érre	French R	[R]	[R/]
Σσς**	Éσσe	1) sake 2) with a voiced consonant: zoo	[s] [z]	[s] [z]
Ss	Se	Top (aspirated)	[tʰ]	[t_h]
Ττ	Τe	Stop (unaspirated)	[t]	[t]
Yy	Y	bureau (French)	[y]	[y]
Φφ	Φe	Food	[f]	[f]
Uu	U	1) look 2) Between a consonant and a vowel: word	[u] [w]	[u] [w]
Vv	Ve	Pill (aspirated)	[pʰ]	[p_h]
Χχ	Χe	1) acht (German) preceded by A, O, U or a consonant 2) sich (German) preceded by E and I	[χ] [ç]	[x] [C]
Цц	Цe	Hats	[ts]	[ts]
Чч	Чe	Catch	[ʧ]	[tS]
Яя	Яe	Cat (aspirated)	[kʰ]	[k_h]
Ψψ	Ψe	Lips	[ps]	[ps]
Ωω	Ω	1) Neutre (French) 2) Before R	[ø] [œ]	[2] [&]

All names are pronounced with the pronunciation of Meσoγeóiκa and all names are neuter in gender

*There is only one capital letter for each of the letters. The Roman lower case letter is used at the end of the word, and the Greek lower case letter is used elsewhere.

** Σσς. There is only one capital letter of Σ. The next two letters are lower case. The ς is used at the end of the word, and the σ is used elsewhere.

PRONUNCIATION OF I AND U

I and U can be pronounced as a vowel [i or u] or as a semivowel [j or w]. The following rules apply, unless the grave accent is placed on these letters, ultimately making them, by default, a vowel.

1) If they are between two consonants; they represent a vowel.

2) If they are between two vowels; they represent a semiconsonant.

3) If a word begins with these letters and the following letter is a consonant; they represent a vowel.

4) If a word begins with these letters and the following letter is a vowel; they represent a consonant.

5) If they are in a diphthong, with vowels other than I and U; they are semiconsonants.

6) If I and U are next to each other; the first one is a semivowel. In other words, “ui” will be pronounced [wi] and “iu” will be pronounced [ju].

ASPIRATION OF PLOSIVES

Voiced plosives (V, D, and G) are unaspirated at all. Most often, voiceless plosives (Κ, Π and Τ) are unaspirated either. When the voiceless plosives are aspirated; they are written with a different letter (Я, V and S). The aspiration of the plosives may be a distinguishing feature in a word.

DOUBLE LETTERS & PHONEME LENGTHENING

Double letters do not represent different sounds from the single counterpart. With consonants, the double letters show lengthening of the sound. If consonants, such as Λ and N, can be prolonged; their pronunciation must take twice as long. If the consonants are plosive, such as Π and Τ; the first of the double consonant is pronounced with the preceding vowel and the second consonant is pronounced with the following vowel. However, vowels, when double vowels occur, such as oo and aa; they are pronounced as if saying to short vowels. Potentially, all vowels can be found doubled, whereas only the following consonants can be found doubled: Б, D, F, G, Κ, Λ, Μ, N, Π, Ρ, R, Σ, Τ and Φ.

Lengthening of consonants, other than the plosives (Б, D, G, Κ, Π and Τ), occurs also when single letters are used. This only occurs just before a pause in speech or before a comma, semicolon, colon, full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

HARD SIGN AND SOFT SIGN

The hard sign (Ьь) and soft sign (Ъъ) are only placed after G and K. G and K soften their sound when preceding an E and I. At the end of a stem or root of a word, where E and I may exist or elsewhere, the hard sign is placed between G/K and E/I to maintain the hardness of the vowel. Similarly, the soft sign is place after G and K, when preceded by the other vowels, to maintain the softness of the vowels. When hard, G and K are pronounced as g in go and k in ski respectively. When soft, they are pronounced as s in pleasure and c in cease respectively.

FORBIDDEN CLUSTERS OF LETTERS

There are certain clusters of letters that do not occur. This is mainly because there are other letters already in place for that phoneme. A Ze (Ζζz) next to another consonant will not be seen. If there is a Ze sound next to a consonant, it will be written with a Éσσe (Σσς), unless the following consonant sequences exist. The following sequences of consonants are not written with a cluster of letters. They are written with one letter. They are: ц for τς, ч for τq, f for dζor dς, ξ for κς and ψ for πς.

DIACRITICS

There are two diacritics in this language. They are the acute accent ( ' ) and the grave accent ( ` ). One diacritic that is more important than the other. The acute accent indicates stress, and the grave accent indicates that I and U are pronounced as vowels [i] and [u] as opposed to the semivowels [j] and [w]. In the word Μáρκo, the A is accented with an acute accent, indicating that the A is the most stressed vowel. The acute accent can go over any vowel. The grave accent is only used on I and U when they should be pronounced when expected to be pronounced as semivowels. . For the simplicity of this website, ø and э will not carry any diacritics.

WHERE AND WHEN TO USE ACCENTS

As a general rule, the acute accent is place on one of the last three syllables of a word. It is put on the vowel which sounds the loudest. Suffixes are a clue as to where the accent goes. For example, "-ióna" is an accented suffix, while "-iκo" has its accent on the 3^rd to last syllable. Words that have many forms (that is verbs and nouns and adjectives) may have their accent change position. It is used on words of two or more syllables.

PUNCTUATION

The punctuation of Meσoγeóiκa is basically that of Spanish with a few changes. The major Punctuation signs are below.

The apostrophe (') is used only when words are abbreviated

The acute accent (΄) is used to show the most stressed vowel in a word.

The grave accent (`) is used to show that two vowels are pronounced separately.

The hyphen (-) is used to split up words at the end of lines when the word doesn't fit on the line.

The semicolon (;) and the colon (:) are used as in English.

The exclamation mark (!) is used more than in English. Besides using it to explanative tones, it is also used to show commands, which is independent on the tone of the speaker.

The question mark (?) is used as in English.

The inverted exclamation mark (¡) is used at the beginning of the sentence where an exclamation mark is used to warn the reader. It can also be used in the middle of the sentence.

The inverted question mark (¿) is used at the beginning of the sentence where a question mark is used to warn the reader. It can also be used in the middle of the sentence; if the sentence is partly interrogative.

The dash (-) is used in a dialogue to show that the speaker has changed.

The double dash (--) or parenthesis (()) are used as brackets in a sentence; if only part of the sentence has exclamation.

The inverted commas written as ("…"), ('…') or (<<…>>) are used for quotations etc.

ELISIONS

Words like "Ελeφθeρía" can drop the first vowel to become "Λeφθeρía." This is called aphaeresis. Aphaeresis can't occur if the first vowel is stressed like "Énτoμo" or the word begins with a prefix like "Anaζíτiσi." It occurs when the preceding word ends with a vowel. An apostrophe is used to show that an elision has taken place, except in such cases as above.

Vowels at the beginning of a verb can be dropped. The stress will go on the particle, if it carries the stress of the word. However, the particle won't take an accent.

The preposition "aπó can be abbreviated to "πó" when preceded by a word ending with a vowel. It can also be abbreviated to "aπ'" when followed by a definite article, say "λa." Hence it would be "aπ'λa." This abbreviated form can not stand on its own. Verbally, the first way of abbreviating this preposition can stand alone.

SYLLABIFICATION

The process of syllabification is very simple really. It is the process of splitting words into syllables. A speaker needs to know how to do this in order to write, as there is a limited amount of space on a line on paper. Hence you have to continue writing the word on another line.

In my language, these few simple rules νneed to be applied. Words are divided before single consonants. For example, the word Κoπiλóτo becomes Κo-πi-λó-τo. Words are divided between double consonants too. For example, eλλegáλo becomes eλ-λe-gá-λo. In a series of consonants, the division occurs before the last consonant. Also there's always a separation between the words of a compound. An example is Enφoρμaτionoбýro becomes En-φoρ-μa-τio-no-бý-ro. The combination of sounds represented by the character(s) "sτ," "ξ, "ψ," "c," "ч" "ц" and "f" are considered as one consonant.