Sona – an auxiliary neutral language
The alphabet has twenty-four letters:
Six vowels a, e, i, o, u, y.
Six aspirates c, j, x, f, v, h.
Six consonants (i) g, d, z, m, b, l.
Six consonants (ii) k, t, s, n, p, r.
These are ‘named’ by adding the vowel y (which does not occur in any radical form) in the case of the vowels as ya, ye, yi, yo, yu, y: in the case of the remaining letters as cy, gy, ky, etc.
VOWELS. The vowels a, e, i, o, u are sounded as in Italian… i and u are naturally shortened before another vowel. y is the neutral vowel of Welsh, A. a, F. e in ‘me’. Before another vowel it has the value of E. y in yard, yea, ye, yore, yule. y has been included in the alphabet (i) to provide an euphonic, separating two like vowels, or two hard vowels (a, e, o) e.g. ta-ata = tayata, ta-o = tayo, (ii) to separate an -n radical from a following vowel: e.g. tan-o = tanyo, avoiding confusion with ta-no = tano; (iii) with the help of an euphonic e to separate a vowel radical prefixed to a Primary radical: e.g. a-ta = ayeta, avoiding confusion with the radical ata. This however is not necessary when the Primary has an initial aspirate: e.g. a-ci = aci (there is no radical form aci). Note the difference between such combinations as ia (i-a), ya (ya), sania (sa-ni-a), sanya (sa-ña); ua, ue, ui, uo (wa, we, wi, wo), yua (yu-a). There are no diphthongs.
ASPIRATES. f, v offer no difficulty; h is aspirated; x (= sh in ‘shin’) has a similar value in Portuguese and Maltese. j may be sounded {as in E. jump or F. bonjour}; c = ch in ‘chin.’ Prof. Jespersen in his ‘Novial’ rightly calls ‘c’ the mischief-maker of language, for its sounds vary between s, k, ch, ts; yet curiously enough he retains ‘ch’, which has four sounds in E. alone. Sona, which has a separate ‘k’ sound (k), uses this letter c consistently to distinguish the ‘ch’ sound throughout.
CONSONANTS. Only three consonants require particular attention. These are g, z, s. The first, g is always hard, as in E. ‘get,’ never as in ‘gem.’ The second, z is sounded as in E. ‘zeal’, but may have the Italian variation of dz, or the German ts. The third, s is always sharp, as in R., never as in E. ‘as’. The remaining nine consonants are sounded as in E. There is no q, w. Sona has no double consonants, nor digraphs (but see ELISION below).
When a radical with a vowel prefix is followed by its own Primary or -n form (see Table, §2) the common vowel is dropped: e.g. ata-ta = atta, ata-tan = attan.
In cases where the Sona alphabet cannot render a foreign sound the phonetic symbol is used.
FOREIGN WORDS are written with a capital. The name of this language Sona is the only Sona word spelt with a capital.
For technical and scientific terms— Greek and Latin, as already in universal use; chemical terms according to formula (Cu = copper); Sona has names for the more common animals, plants, minerals, etc. but finer distinctions must be left to Latin. Foreign words should be spelt according to the language of origin; e.g. Post, Menu, Hotel, Radio, Fox-trot. Except in the case of mathematical and chemical formulae the (k) sound is better written k:— Carnival = Karnival; but surnames should not be altered:— Shelley (not Xellei), Wilson (not Vilson), Charlemagne (not Xarlmany).
The tonic accent is evenly distributed, as in F., T., J.
Oriental languages are not so tied by formal rules as occidental in the devices of punctuation. It is therefore desirable that we leave the matter more or less open to choice. The total absence of any form of punctuation in Chinese and Arabic is obviously a great defect in the eyes of an European. The interrogative ke of Sona does not require the question mark ?— though it may be used.
NOTE. The few minor irregularities of Sona are due partly to its phonetic principles, as just explained, and partly to the almost mathematical form of its radicals, which allows no ambiguity.
There are but three irregularities:—
(a) the arbitrary use of the suffix vowels -i, -a, for the inhabitants of countries instead of the regular ra, zan (§14).
(b) the arbirary use of ci as an ‘isolator’ separating a noun of place in -a from a suffixed Primary consonant, thus avoiding confusion with the prefix vowel a- (§15).
(c) the so-called ‘Defective’ verbs (§35).
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this version ©2002 by the Sona Sojigi