Gullenic Language

Pronunciation according to Robertson's system :
(based partly on the way in which Gullenic is
 transliterated with the Stoffonian alphabet.)

simple (short) vowels:

a       pronounced as in "father" or Spanish "a"
e       English "bed"
i       usually as in "it"
        sometimes as in "pizza"
        when followed by another vowel, sounds like "y"
o       as in "vote"
u       as in "cure", "you" (the y is an essential part of this sound)
        not actually pronounced after certain consonants (see below)
° or '  a very short, neutral vowel which has the effect
        of making the following consonant a syllable.
        can occur with l,m,n,r.

lost-r vowels :

ar      like aw in British "law", "fox"
er      a dipthong made up of e as in "bed" plus "u" as in "but"
ir      y as in "you" plus u as in "but"
or      o as "vote" plus "u" as in but
ur      y as in "you" plus "oo" as in "good"


consonants (pronounced as in English except where noticed):

b
c       as in "cat"
d
f
g
h
l
lr      combination of "l" and "r".
        pronounce "l" and then very quickly pronounce "r".
        the "r" sound is almost a syllable, but not quite.
        (sounds slightly like l°r, døl, or dør)
m
n
p
r       almost like English "r", a bit like "l"
        weaker than English "r"
        after a vowel, functions as part of a dipthong (see above)
s       always "s", never "z"
t
v
z

consonant-u combinations:
(pronounced as one consonant, the u makes no vowel sound)

du      j in "jar"
su      sh in "shoe"
tu      ch in "church"
zu      s in "treasure"

Note that combinations are only pronounced as such if they are
part of the same syllable.

If the the combination is followed by a vowel, then a "w" sound is
heard. (dua = "jwa"). This occurance is not common.



Syllables begin on consonants whenever possible.
(When i is pronounced "y" and u is pronounced "w", they are considered
 consonants in this sense. Also, ° begins a syllable after a vowel.)

Example pronunciations of some proper names:

Arnoc      [aw-noc]
Guluain    [gyu-lyu-ain]
Ristulain  [risch-lain]
Malrme°n   [mal-r-me-en]
Dimulain   [di-myu-lain]
Naluain    [na-lyu-ain]
Radulain   [raj-lain]
Aduain    [a-jwain]
Lurue°n   [lyuh-yu-we-en]

You will notice that all these names end with consonants.
All nouns, verbs, and other such words end in consonants.
Words ending in vowels are prepositions, conjuctions, and such.

The barest beginnings of grammar:
---------------------------------

There are several basic syntactical helper words, some of
which are paired so that a list of words are inserted between
them:

ra na - serve to enclose a general purpose list of words
ri ni - enclose a list of words that modify the preceding word or list

Other helper words:

le - is inserted between words in a list
li - inserted between words
lo - used to end a sentence
go - causes a repeat of the last word at the same level of enclosure,
     as will be seen in the examples.
zi - negates whatever follows
ki - and
ka - or
ko - but

Adjacent helper words in a sentence are concatenated.
For example "nilo" = "ni lo"

Sort of a naive BNF-like thingy, for positive statements only:

sentence := <clause> lo 
clause := <simple_clause> | <complex_clause>
complex_clause := <simple_clause> <conj> <simple_clause> ...
conj := ki | ka | ko 
simple_clause := <verb_list> ra <parameter_list> na
verb_list := <verb_phrase> | ra <verb_phrase> { le <verb_phrase> }* na
verb_phrase := <verb> | <verb> <mod_list>
mod_list := ri <modifier> { le <modifier> }* ni
parameter_list :=	<subject> |
			<subject> le <direct_object> |
			<subject> le <direct_object> le <ind_object>			
subject, object, ind_obj := <noun_phrase> | <noun_list>
noun_phrase := <noun> | <noun> <mod_list>
noun_list := ra <noun_phrase> { le <noun_phrase> }* na
noun, verb, modifier := <word_ending_with_consonant> | clause 

Note the recursive potential of that last one!

Here's some examples:
(the verb "val" means to call)

Val ra Aduain le Malrme'n nalo.
Aduain calls Malrme'n.

Val rara Aduain le Arnoc nalera Malrme'n le Lurue'n nanalo.
Aduain and Arnoc call Malrme'n and Lurue'n.

Val ri noc nira Aduain le Malrme'n nalo.
Aduain will call Malrme'n soon.
("noc" means soon)

Val ra Aduain le Malrme'n ri gul ninalo.
Aduains calls fair Malrme'n.
("gul" means beatiful, pretty, fair)

Now the tricky part -- in practical, informal speech, long clusters
of helpers like "ninalo" are often contracted. Here are the most
common contractions:

nalo	no
nira	nya
nanalo	nao
nalera	nela
ninalo	nyao

Try to recognize the examples now:

Val ra Aduain le Malrme'n nao.
Val rara Aduain le Arnoc nela Malrme'n le Lurue'n nao.
Val ri noc nya Aduain le Malrme'n no.
Val ra Aduain le Malrme'n ri gul nyao.