Seuna word shape

Consonants

The full consonant inventory is;-

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	b p	d t			g k
Fricatives	f		s			h
Affricates				j c
Nasals	m	n
Lateral			l
Flap			r
Semivowels	w			y

Initial consonant clusters

The single consonants and consonant combinations given below are allowed to start a word. There are 37 of them.

@ is actually just a place holder. It actually means that the word starts with a vowel.

@
m	my
y
j			jw
f	fy	fl
b	by	bl	bw
g		gl	gw
d			dw
l
c			cw
s		sl	sw
k	ky	kl	kw
p	py	pl
t			tw
w
n	ny
h

n is realised as ŋ when it occurs before a velar sound. So [longe] "to relax" is actually pronounced as /loŋge/

f is realised as v when it occurs between two voiced sounds. So [bofu] "toad" is actually pronounced as /bovu/

s is realised as z when it occurs between two voiced sounds. So [nasa] "him" is actually pronounced as /naza/: [lasgo] "grape" is actually pronounced as /lazgo/

s is realised as ʃ when it occurs before the front vowels i and ia. So [sia] "to ascend" is actually pronounced as /ʃia/

s is realised as ʒ when it occurs after a voiced sound and is followed by i and ia. So [longesi] "lazy" is actually pronounced as /loŋgeʒi/

t is realised as ts when it occurs before u, ua and even w

The post-alveolar affricates are represented here by c and j, are the initial sounds of "Charlie" and "Jimmy" respectively. .

The consonant r is exceptional in that it only occurs in suffixes attached to active verbs. It doesn't occur in the alphabet and it is never needed when looking up words in a dictionary.

Vowels

There are five simple vowels in Seuna ... i, e, a, o and u.

For diphthongs we have the four closing diphthongs ai, au, oi, eu, and the two opening diphthongs ia, and ua.

Mid consonant clusters

The single consonants and consonant combinations given below are allowed word internally. There are 53 of them.

@

m

y

j

f

b

g

d

l

c

s

k

p

t

w

n

h

lm

ly

lj

lf

lb

lg

ld

lc

ls

lk

lp

lt

lw

ln

ny

nj

nf

mb

ŋg

nd

nc

ns

ŋk

mp

nt

mw

sm

sy

sb

sg

sd

sl

sk

sp

st

sw

sn

Actually the voicing of the consonant clusters -sm- -sb- -sg- -sd- -sl- -sw- and -sn- starts well before the beginning of the second consonant, so it might have been more appropriate to use the notation -zm- -zb- ... . However I decided against using a new character for the notation and just kept with -sm- -sb- ... .

Final vowels

All eleven vowels/diphthongs can occur finally.

Tail consonants

Two consonants are allowed to come word finally. They are n and s.

Word ordering

Words are initially sorted according to the pre-figure. So words are first ordered in the sequence;-

@, m, y, j, f, b, g, d, l, c, s, k, p, t, w, n, h

Then words are ordered according to the off-gesture. So, for example, words beginning with b are ordered;-

b, by, bl, bw

Then the are ordered according to the mid-figure. The ordering is the same as the initial ordering, namely ;-

@, m, y, j, f, b, g, d, l, c, s, k, p, t, w, n, h

Then words are ordered depending on mid-figure on-gesture.

So, for example, words having a b as the last element in the mid-cluster are ordered;-

b, lb, zb, mb

Then they are ordered according to the first vowel cluster. This order is;-

au, o, oi, i, ia, a, ua, u, eu, e, ai

Index

1. Introduction to Seuna
2. Seuna : Chapter 1
3. Seuna word shape
4. The script of Seuna
5. Seuna sentence structure
6. Seuna pronouns
7. Seuna nouns
8. Seuna verbs (1)
9. Seuna adjectives
10. Seuna demonstratives
11. Seuna verbs (2)
12. Asking a question in Seuna
13. Seuna relative clauses
14. Seuna verbs (3)
15. Methods for deriving words in Seuna
16. List of all Seuna derivational affixes
17. Numbers in Seuna
18. Naming people in Seuna
19. The Seuna calendar
20. Seuna units