Lesson 0 - Spelling and pronunciation


This should explain the sounds and writing system of gzb more simply,
assuming no phonology background, than the semi-technical description
in "Phonology".

The writing system is phonetic.  Every sound (or group of sounds which
can be used interchangeably) is represented by a single letter, and
every letter always represents the same sound.  

There are only 26 letters in ASCII, so 24 of the letters of gzb are
represented by plain ASCII characters a, b, c... z while 28 others are
represented by base letters plus x or q.  So keep in mind that
combinations like tx, sx, pq represent a single sound (like th, sh in
English; except that h also represents its own sound in English, while
x and q have no other meaning in gzb).

These letters have about the same sound in gzb as in English:

p b t d k g f v m n z s w h l r

These represent sounds also found in English.

cx    ch in "church"
tx    th in "bath"
dx    th in "this"
sx    sh in "hush"
c     ts in "cats"
zx    dz sound in "rides"
nx    ng in "thing"
j     y in "yard" or "boy"
jx    s in "pleasure"
	
These sounds aren't found in English, or aren't so distinctive there.

kx      The final sound in  English "back" as distinct the inital
        sound in  "call", represented by gzb "k".	  
px      Air blown through the lips.  A short raspberry.
hx/hq   Similar to the "ch" in German "ach".
sq/jq	Similar to the "ch" in German "ich".
cq/zq	Similar to sq/jq, but starting with a sound like t/d, merging
        into the "ich" sound.

clicks:

kq	Tongue placed as for /k/, then pushed forward.
lq 	front of tongue pulled from roof of mouth 
tq	tip of tongue pulled from between teeth
pq	lips pulled apart suddenly
mq	similar as {pq}, but with air released through the nose at the
	same time.


Vowels:

iq	pIck
ax	tAp
rq	buttER
e	lEt
eq	Ago, bUt
a	spA
u	sUItcase
i	machIne
y	bOOk
o	pOke
oq	rAW, cOUgh

The tense vowels i, o, u, oq occur without the following "y" or "w" sound
they usually have in English.  Some of them also occur in those forms,
but they mean different things.

i	at  (pronounced as in French or Spanish "si")
ij	near (pronounced as in English "see")

mu      our universe
muw	being a member of a set

Many diphthongs (a vowel plus "j" (y) or "w") occur in gzb.  Here are
some with English similars.

ej   way
aj   sky
axw  cow
oj   boy
yj   buoy

These base vowels don't occur in English; here are French examples.

ix      pointU  (rounded "i")
ox	sOEUr	(rounded "e")

{nq} following a vowel means that it is pronounced nasalized.
More French examples:

onq	son
axnq	faim

etc.


If any syllable of a word is nasalized, so are all the others.  So
{nq} is written  only once in any  word, after the last vowel.

Capitalization is normally not used, but it can be used to show
irregular stress, for instance in proper names.

"h,p, lEQvkraxft  H. P. Lovecraft

Stress is not very important (it  doesn't change what a word
means, as sometimes in English), but generally the final
syllable of the main root in each word is slightly emphasized.

RUNx-zox
fix'SUNq-bly

Punctuation in gzb has its own usage.

Each sentence ends in "."
Questions begin with ?
Requests begin with !
Emphasized statements begin with *
The last sentence of a paragraph ends in ".."

Curly brackets { } are used around quotations like "" in English.
A double-quote " precedes any proper name.

A dash is used to separate the roots in a compound word.

kriq-tla    a writer or artist (from {kriq}, to write or create, and
	    {tla}, a professional)

A single quote ' is used between syllables of root words with two or
more syllables.

req'jxy	  wife