Novoslovnica. Guide for a Slavic constructed language

This alteration appears in words with the letter S before a vowel A. The basic sound is S, which changes to Š before vowels I, E and in some cases before A in conjugation. Let’s look at examples to understand how it works.

Examples:

Pisati (write) [`pɪsatɪ] – piši [pɪ`ʂɪ]

Vysok (tall) [vɨ`sok] – povyšati [po`vɨʂatɪ] (to increase)

Alternation K//Č

This alteration appears in words with the letter K before a vowel A without a following vowel. The basic sound is K, which changes to Č before vowels Ě, N. Let us look at examples to understand how it works.

Examples:

Věk [vek] – věčen [`vet̠ʃɛn]}

Vëlïk [`ve̞lik] (Big) – vëlïčina [`ve̞lit̠ʃɪna] (Measure)

Alternation C//Č

This alteration appears in words with the letter C before a vowel A. The basic sound is C, which changes to Č before vowels I, E. Let us look at examples.

Examples:

Ptica (bird) [`ptɪtsa] – ptičen (birdish) [`ptɪt̠ʃɛn]

Věnec [`venɛts] (Crown) – Věnčati [`vent̠ʃatɪ] (To crown)

Alternation D//Đ

This one appears in words with the letter D before a vowel I. This consonant changes to Đ before vowels A, E and U. Let us look at the examples.

Examples:

Voditi (drive) [`vodɪtɪ] – vođati [`voɖʐatɪ]

Roditi [`rodɪtɪ] (bare) – rođati [`roɖʐatɪ]

Alternation Ǐ//J

This alternation is very simple. We write Ǐ before a consonant or in the end of the word and we write J before a vowel. The exception is the case, when we write Ǐ in the end of the word, but the first letter of the next word is a vowel – then we pronounce J, but write Ǐ.

Examples:

Môǐ (my) [mʊj] – moja [`moʝa]

However, not only consonants can change in the word when we conjugate or decline it. There are some alterations of vowels too.

Alternation Ò//-

This alternation appears in some old roots (see next paragraph).

Examples:

Tòk (stick) [tək] – tkati [`tkatɪ] (to weave)

Alternation E//-

This alternation is similar to the previous ones, but exist in word suffixes.

Examples:

Krasen (Nice) [`krasɛn] – krasna [`krasna]

Alternation Ę//En

This alternation is rather narrow, because it is used in the case of declension nouns of type 3 (look paragraph about noun declension), when the nasal vowel [ɛ̃] alternates to non-nasal pair of vowel «E» and consonant «N» (non-nasal!). To understand it look at the example

Examples:

Vremę (time) [`vrɛmjɛ̃] – vremenï [`vrɛmɛɲi]

Plemę (tribe) [`plEmjɛ̃] – plemenï [`plɛmɛɲi]

In the conclusion of this paragraph it should be mentioned that alterations are very important in Slavic languages and Novoslovnica as well. You can use reproduction in your speech as a recommended feature, while alterations are complimentary in this language. As it was noted before, we cannot ignore anything that can bring a misunderstanding in our speech.

Runaway vowels

Looking back in the Slavic language history we can find out that there were roots with two strange for an ordinary person vowels – «Ò» and «J». First one was named «Yer» and denotes a hard mid central vowel (Shwa). The second one was named «Yerj» (with soft R) and denotes a soft mid central vowel. Now the second one is lost and we use only shwa sound in the letter «Yer». However, the words are still and we need to pronounce them in some way. Novoslovnica uses the soft «E» sound to represent roots with old soft shwa sound.

Main feature of these sounds was to fall out from the root, when a vowel appears afterwards. That’s why there are many words with two consonants consecutively – there is an imaginary shwa sound between them that has been fallen out from the root.

Nevertheless, despite falling out of «Yer», soft «E» in this places does not fall out. So, in the previous paragraph you could see that there are two alternations O//– and O//Ë, that are handled in the similar positions. So the answer on the question, why in the first case there is no sound and in the second there is a soft E is the fact, that words satisfying the first case comprise old hard shwa sound and remain comprise old soft shwa sound, that has transformed into soft E.

The fact should be mentioned that nowadays the letter Ò exists only in roots of the words. In suffixes the letter E is used for this sound and in the prefixes the letter O is used.

Look at the examples:

– pod

– ek

– pòk

However, you should remember that speaking the words with these letters we should pronounce them just as they are written – Ò as shwa, E as E, O as O. You should not reduce all the sounds to shwa.

Accent

Accent is a very difficult topic in most languages, because it is not permanent. There are some exceptions i.e. Czech and French, but in most cases we cannot say where accent will be put in the word without studying definite language. This causes problems for beginners.