q'ui'nlen'

Phonology

The q'ui'nlen' alphabet consists of the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet, plus the apostrophe '. The apostrophe modifies the sound of the previous letter, similar to the letter h in English (such as the letter combinations ch, ph, sh, and th). The letters a, e, h, i, o, u, w, and y are vowels in q'ui'nlen', and the rest consonants. Although I generally consider letters w and y to be vowels in q'ui'nlen', they are consonants when the next letter is a vowel. Other than w and y sometimes being consonants, and letters modified by apostrophes, all letters in q'ui'nlen' make the same sound.

The following table shows the sounds made by each letter using Lojban and English equivalents:

Sounds made by w and y when they are consonants (when the next letter is a vowel):

Since English has a lot of irregular pronunciations, it is more convenient to describe a sound by its Lojban equivalent instead of its English equivalent.

The following table shows sounds made by letters when they are modified by the apostrophe:

Most sounds made by a letter and an apostrophe either do not exist in Lojban, or do not have unique Lojban equivalents.

The sequence q'u is pronounced like kw and is meant so loan words and proper nouns containing "qu" can look similar.

Orthography

Syllables

q'ui'nlen' is designed so that division between words is unambiguous even if there are no spaces. Letters are divided into primary and secondary consonants and vowels, as given in the following table:

Notice that the primary vowels are all the vowels that are represented by a single letter, and secondary vowels are all the vowels represented by a letter followed by an apostrophe. When y is a consonant it can act as a primary consonant, but it is treated a little differently than other primary consonants.

Words in q'ui'nlen' consist of one or more word segments. This concept will be explained later, but the large majority of words will be only one segment. Division between word segments (which in most cases, are also division between words) is when there is more than one primary consonant in sequence when the previous vowel was a primary vowel. All words begin and and with a primary consonant.

The basic syllable in q'ui'nlen' starts with a primary consonant, is optionally followed by a secondary consonant, then is followed by a primary vowel, which can optionally be followed by either l or r. An extended syllable begins with a primary consonant, is optionally followed by a secondary consonant, then followed by a secondary vowel, then optionally a sequence of one or more primary consonants, or l or r. If the secondary vowel was o' or u', then at least one consonant must follow it. The secondary vowels a', e', i' can be followed by any number of consonants, but do not have to be.

A syllable can also start with y followed by a primary vowel (which means the "y" is a consonant) then optionally either a letter l or r.

Each basic syllable corresponds to one of the standard roots. Some roots have extensions, where an extended syllable (one with a secondary vowel) comes before it. For example, the root qi means animal. With the extended syllable bu'r in front, it becomes bu'rqi which means mammal. The root extensions available depend on each root. Most roots do not have extensions. Extended roots are mostly used for animals, plants, food, materials, and chemicals: things that would be difficult to define with a sequence of roots.

Word Formation

There are about 250 standard roots in the language. The bulk of the vocabulary is made up of one or more roots. Roots start with a primary consonant and end in a primary vowel. Some roots have a secondary consonant in the middle. This means that if the secondary consonants of a word are removed, it would alternate between consonants and vowels. At the end of the word is a primary consonant. Verbs end in the letter b, nouns end in either f or t, and adjectives and adverbs end in j.

L and R transformations

An R-transformation of a root is one where the primary consonant and vowel are replaced by its equivalent given in the below table, and ends in the letter r. Similarly, an L-transformation is when the primary consonant and vowel are replaced by the respective equivalent and ends in the letter l. The R-transformation of a root has the opposite meaning, and the L-transformation means anywhere on the scale that the root measures.

For example, the root sy means hot. Its R-transformation is fir which means cold. Its L-transformation is tal which means "to have a temperature". The L-transformation is often useful when combined with the root ke which means medium. The word ketalb means "to be of medium temperature".

Word Segments

As explained above, a word segment both begins and ends in a primary consonant, and the final consonant depends on its part of speech. If a segment ends in any of the following: b, f, j, n, n', s, t, v, x, z, then it is the last (and in most cases only) segment of the word. If the segment ends in any of: d, g, p, q, then it is not the last segment of a word.