Senjecas - Adaptation of the Latin Alphabet

Pronunciation table

peműko (labial)								riisűko (dental)								muitűko (alveolar)								vainűko (palatal)							ṡ̨uuše̋nos (vowels with प)								nı̋þo ṡ̨uuše̋nos (weak vowels)
p	b	f	v	m̃	m			t	d	þ	ð	ɫ	l			ṡ	ż	s	z	r	n			k	g	x	ƣ	h	ȝ			š	s̨			i	e	a	ɔ	o	u			ı	ɛ	y
प	ब	फ	भ	म़	म			त	द	थ	ध	ल़	ल			च	ज	स	स़	र	न			क	ग	क़	ग़	ह	य			स्व	स्य			इ ई पि पी	ए एै पे पै	अ आ प पा	ऒ ॵ पॊ पॏ	ओ औ पो पौ	उ ऊ पु पू			पं	पऺ	पॅ
/p/	/b/	/ɸ/	/β/	/m̥/	/m/			/t/	/d/	/θ/	/ð/	/l̥/	/l/			/ʦ/	/ʣ/	/s/	/z/	/ɾ̥/	/n/			/k/	/g/	/ç/	/ʝ/	/j̊/	/j/			/sʷ/	/sʲ/			/i/	/e/	/ä/	/ɒ/	/o/	/u/			/ɪ/	/ɛ/	/ʊ/

ᖶ፡ⴺ⨅፡ⴿ፧ᖶ ፡ⴹ፧ △፧ꓦ∙ⴺ= ⴹ≡≡ⴺⵝ፧ⴴ=ᖶ ᗑ፧ⴳ ⴹ፧ᖶ ⴴ፡ᖶꓦ˧ᖶ፧፧ⴹⴹ፧

senȝeka̋s latı̋no ruunpafős ðuvra̋s festɛsa̋a̋r̈a

History of the Adaptation of the Latin Alphabet for Senjecas

• When humans began to commit their languages to writing, the Ethrans, through the agency of the Committee on Orthography of the Council of Mages (seilűm muþiȝűs ruunȝara̋s túȝa áulmuþı̋ȝu – S.M.R.A.) began to adopt and adapt the several human alphabets for use with Senjecas.
• The consonants exist as twelve pairs of a voiced and an unvoiced consonant, each of which has its own grapheme. Likewise each of the six vowel phonemes has its own grapheme. The Etruscan/Latin alphabet was the first to be adopted when, in 653 B.C.E., at a meeting in Rome, 24 of the original 26 graphemes were approved as appropriate for Senjecas (Ξ and X were omitted). Oriented to a left-to-right position and using contemporary graphemes where necessary, these 24 were: A, B, C, D, E, V, Z, H, Θ, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Ś, Ϙ, R, S, T, Y, Φ, and Ψ. There were no miniscules as yet. The 19 consonants occupied the following places on the Senjecan consonant table:

	Plosive	Fricative	Sonorant
Labial	P B	Φ V	_ M
Dental	T D	Θ _	_ L
Alveolar	Ś _	S I	R N
Palatal	K C	Ψ Q	H _

• Notes:

1. The Z resembled a majuscule i (I) with serifs which is not available with this font.
2. Ś = /ʃ/ in Etruscan.
3. Φ = /pʰ/ in Etruscan.
4. Ψ = /kʰ/ in Etruscan.

• The five vowels occupied the following places on the Senjecan vowel table:

	High	Mid	Low
Front unrounded	I	E	A
Back rounded	V	O	_

• Because of the one-to-one correspondence between phoneme and grapheme in Senjecas, an attempt was made always to have this one-to-one correspondence in whatever alphabet was adopted. But since many of the alphabets lacked enough graphemes, it was decided at this time to use geminate consonants where necessary (diacritics were not yet available), the geminate consonant representing the voiced consonant.

• The Etruscan grapheme <⛒> was retained for the dental fricative, since the phoneme did not exist in Latin. The Phoenician/Greek form <I> /ʣ/ was retained. The Semitic voiceless pharyngeal fricative <ח> (khêt) /ħ/ became /h/ in Etruscan and Latin and was used to represent the Senjecan similar sound /j/ and its voiceless counterpart. It will be noticed that, from the very beginning, the grapheme <Ϙ> was used to represent the voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/. This resulted in the following table:

	Plosive	Fricative	Sonorant
Labial	P B	Φ V	M MM
Dental	T D	⛒ ⛒⛒	L LL
Alveolar	Ś ŚŚ	S I	R N
Palatal	K C	Ψ Q	H HH

• From the beginning, the phonemic distinction between long and short vowels has been represented by geminate vowels, regardless of the alphabet used. The Latin vowels <I> /i/, <E> /e/, <A> /a/, <O> /o/, and <V> /u/ were adequate as graphemes for five of the Senjecan vowels. Lacking, however, was a grapheme for the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/. After much discussion it was finally decided to use the Greek <Ω> as the grapheme for this phoneme, resulting in the following vowel table:

	High	Mid	Low
Front unrounded	I	E	A
Back rounded	V	O	Ω

• Palatalization was indicated by writing <H> before the vowel. Labialization was indicated by writing <V> before the vowel.

• In Latin /j/, written <y>, was not a native sound for Latin speakers and the letter was initially only used to spell foreign words. Old English borrowed the grapheme to write the native Old English sound /j/. The S.M.R.A. reassigned it to represent the three weak vowels /ɪ/, /ɛ/, and /ʊ/. As these three sounds are not interchangeable, there was no confusion.

• In the year 220 B.C.E., again in Rome, after Spurius Carvilius Ruga had allegedly developed the grapheme <G> to represent the voiced member of the palatal plosive pair, it was adopted by the Council of Mages. After the conquest of Greece in the first century B.C.E., the Romans restored <Z> to their alphabet. The alphabet still retained the old Etruscan graphemes for the alveolar plosives. Once <Z> was restored, it was decided to geminate the fricatives to represent the plosives. This was officially approved in the year 28 C.E. at a third meeting in Rome.

• With the advent of the Anglo-Saxon language adaption of the Latin alphabet, the S.M.R.A. was able to refine the Senjecan use of the Latin alphabet even further. Thorn <þ> and eth <ð> replaced the old Etruscan <⛒> used for the dental fricatives. And wynn <ƿ>, which represented /w/, replaced <M> to represent the voiceless labial sonorant. When the Anglo-Saxon writers in the seventh century replaced <ƿ> with <w>, the Council of Archimages retained the <ƿ>. And yogh <ȝ> was adopted to represent the palatal approximants replacing the consonant <H>. These Anglo-Saxon adaptations were approved by the Council of Mages at a meeting in York in the year 703.

• The next revision of the Latin alphabet to be adopted was the use of minuscules. During the reign of Charlemagne, Alcuin popularized the minuscule letters and, in the year 807, at a meeting in Dijon, the Council of Mages, based on the fact that there were not two forms of the graphemes in Senjecas, kept to that principle but elected to use the minuscules rather than the majuscules. This resulted in the following table:

	Plosive	Fricative	Sonorant
Labial	p b	ɸ v	ƿ m
Dental	t d	þ ð	l ll
Alveolar	ś śś	s z	r n
Palatal	k g	ψ ϙ	ȝ ȝȝ

• Toward the end of the 16th century, <j> began to be distinguished from <i>. In the year 1583, the Council of Mages, meeting in Oxford, permitted it to be used for the palatal approximants when yogh was not available.

• The final step in the evolution of the Senjecan Latin alphabet came with the creation of diacritics. The Greeks had been using diacritics to indicate tone since about 200 B.C. In the 16th century, the Polish language began to use <ł> to represent /w/. This grapheme was adopted to represent the unvoiced dental approximant, but in the form <ɫ>. The use of the acute accent dates from the 14th century. To simplify further the orthography <ṡ> and <ż> were chosen to replace <ś> and <śś> respectively. And finally the Council of Mages, in 1972, at a meeting in London, and at the recommendation of the S.M.R.A., decided on the following: open o <ɔ> to represent the mid-back rounded vowel, and, since <ƿ> was so similar to <p> and <þ>, <m̃> (in imitation of <ɫ>) was chosen for /m̥/.

• At this time, also, the grapheme for the weak vowels was refined. To indicate the weak vowel /ɛ/, which prevents consonant clusters of more than two consonants, the IPA <ɛ> was selected. To indicate the weak vowel /ɪ/, which is the realization of a palatalized consonant before another consonant, the IPA <ɪ> was selected. And to indicate the weak vowel /ʊ/, which is the realization of a labialized consonant before another consonant, <y> was selected since it was not being used.

• It was also decided to replace with a diacritic the grapheme used to indicate the palatal and labial consonants. An ogonek was chosen to represent palatalization, e.g., b̨. A hook is used for the two consonants with descenders, thus, ɠ and ƥ. (A palatalized <ƣ> does not occur in Senjecas.) And a circumflex over or under the consonant was chosen to represent labiialization, e.g., k̬, š.

• Also at the 1972 meeting, final improvements included replacing <ɸ> with <f>, <ϙ> with <ƣ> and <ψ> with <x>. <ȝȝ> was replaced with <ȝ>, <ȝ> with <h>, <ś> with <ṡ>, and <ź> with <ż>. And, for purely esthetic reasons, since Senjecas has no geminate consonants, it was decided to place a diaresis over or under a consonant when, as a result of compounding a geminate consonant resulted. Thus, be̋so, arm + se̋do, chair = bes̈e̋do, armchair. These recommendations were approved at the same meeting in 1972 giving the tables the forms that we have today:

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal
Stops	p/b	t/d	ṡ/ż	k/g
Fricatives	f/v	þ/ð	s/z	x/ƣ
Sonorants	m̃/m	ɫ/l	r/n	h/ȝ

	Front unrounded	Back rounded
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a	ɔ

Senjecas - List of Postpositions