2. Writing, sounds and syllables
Writing
In the lessons: Lesson 1: Sounds and syllables
- Latin alphabet, no letters of its own.
- 20 letters; each stands for exactly one sound, and each sound for exactly one letter.
- No accents, umlauts, special characters, letter combinations or silent letters.
- Not used: c, q, w, x, y, z.
Capital letters
In the lessons: Lesson 2: The first sentence · Lesson 10: My, your: noun + noun
Only proper names are capitalised. The beginnings of sentences, nouns and all other words are written in lower case.
Foreign names keep their spelling, even if they do not follow the syllable pattern (Marc, Babel). They are pronounced as well as possible. The capital letter shows that a name is not a Senatola word; that is why a name may also have just one syllable.
A capital letter therefore carries exactly one piece of information: the word is a name.
In speech you cannot hear capital letters. A name that sounds like a Senatola word (such as “Lo”, like lo = he) can therefore be misunderstood. If that is likely, meba (name) goes in front: meba Lo = the name Lo, literally “name Lo” (noun + noun). This is a paraphrase, not a new rule.
Punctuation
In the lessons: Lesson 14: Linking sentences · Lesson 17: Telling
Basic principle: the grammar is unambiguous even without punctuation, because in speech there are only pauses. Punctuation is a reading aid: it shows the type of sentence and marks pauses. Each mark at the end of a sentence stands for exactly one type of sentence.
| Mark | When | Spoken |
|---|---|---|
| . | at the end of every statement | pause |
| ? | at the end of every sentence whose main clause is a question | pause |
| ! | at the end of every sentence whose main clause is a request (starts with vo) | pause |
| „ “ | around every quoted sentence after re: „ directly after re, “ at the end of the quoted sentence | nothing; in speech re shows the quotation |
| , | at every boundary between clauses (before a conjunction that introduces a clause, and before and after a relative clause); never in lists and never with su between two nouns, where there is always su | short pause |
If a sentence ends with direct speech, the punctuation of the quoted sentence applies, because its end is also the end of the whole sentence: lo sene re „ka tu name?“ = He says: “Are you eating?” If the quotation is a short sentence without a sentence-type word (a single word or a phrase), the punctuation of the whole sentence applies: ma mela sene folo ka di Senatola re „dova“? = How do you say “house” in Senatola? The mark of the quoted sentence goes inside the quotation marks, and no further mark follows; with a quoted short sentence the mark of the whole sentence comes after it.
Which mark comes at the end depends only on the main clause at the start of the sentence. A ka or vo in a subordinate clause does not change it:
| Senatola | Meaning | Why this mark |
|---|---|---|
| ka tu name nama? | Do you eat food? | The main clause begins with ka. |
| vo tu name nama! | Eat food! | The main clause begins with vo. |
| ka tu name, su lo sene? | Are you eating, and is he speaking? | ka applies to both main clauses, one question mark at the end. |
| mi sene, de ka tu name. | I say whether you are eating. | The main clause is a statement; the ka belongs to the de clause. |
| nita su dufa su pina | dog, cat and child | Lists take su, no comma. |
In numbers written as digits, thousands are separated by spaces (1 300 000), because the full stop ends the sentence.
| Senatola | Meaning |
|---|---|
| mi name nama, su tu sene. | I eat, and you speak. |
| mi sene di dova ga namara, je name nama. | I speak in the house with the eater who is eating. |
| mi sene ga namara, je name nama di dova. | I speak with the eater who is eating in the house. |
The commas only show the pauses; the meaning does not depend on them. A relative clause on a later noun runs to the end of the sentence (see “Relative clauses” in chapter 4). That is why “in the house” for the main clause comes before the relative clause.
Alphabet
In the lessons: Lesson 1: Sounds and syllables
a e i o u · n p d k f l s r g j · b · h m t v
Order: first the vowels, then the initial letters of the digits 0–9, then b (the beginning of all place words), then the rest.
Sounds
In the lessons: Lesson 1: Sounds and syllables
| Letter | IPA | Note | As in |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | [a] | any length (true of all vowels) | father |
| e | [e] or [ɛ] | closed or open, both are correct | café, bed |
| i | [i] | machine | |
| o | [o] or [ɔ] | closed or open, both are correct | (Spanish) no, lot |
| u | [u] | rule | |
| n | [n] | nose | |
| p | [p] | post | |
| d | [d] | day | |
| k | [k] | kite | |
| f | [f] | fish | |
| l | [l] | light | |
| s | [s] | always voiceless | bus |
| r | [r] or [ʁ] | rolled or guttural r, both are correct | (Spanish) pero |
| g | [ɡ] | always hard | go |
| j | [j] | yes | |
| b | [b] | ball | |
| h | [h] | always heard, never silent | house |
| m | [m] | moon | |
| t | [t] | tea | |
| v | [v] | voice |
Deliberately left out: sh, ch, z (ts), ü, ö, harsh throat sounds, tones.
Syllable structure
In the lessons: Lesson 1: Sounds and syllables
- Every syllable consists of exactly one consonant and one vowel (CV), without exception.
- Never two consonants or two vowels in a row. Every word begins with a consonant and ends in a vowel.
- 15 consonants × 5 vowels = 75 syllables → 5,625 two-syllable and about 422,000 three-syllable word forms.
Stress
In the lessons: Lesson 1: Sounds and syllables
Always on the second-to-last syllable: na-ma-li-ma.