A Grammar of Vabungula. Part 1: Alphabet and Pronunciation.

Vabungula

A Grammar of Vabungula

Part 1 - Alphabet and Pronunciation

Alphabet

Vabungula employs a native alphabet of 25 letters. Every letter has one form - there are no capitals. This alphabet was devised in 1966, followed in 1968 by a standard romanized version. Below is a table of these letters and their romanized equivalents as used throughout this grammar. Note that the combinations 'ss' and 'zz' each represent one letter. This is a deviation from the standard romanization, which uses letters that cannot be displayed on the web without installation of special fonts. (These two letters are and , which are found in some Eastern European alphabets such as Czech, Croatian, and Lithuanian). The letters below are listed from left to right, top to bottom, in the order of their occurrence in the Vabungula alphabet.


d	a	k	ê	n


v	b	u	g	p


e	t	o	ss	m


s	r	i	l	û


h	f	zz	z	y

The romanized Vabungula alphabet differs from the native alphabet in the following points:

The cluster (pronounced like the English "ch") is romanized by the single letter c. The cluster (pronounced like the English "j"), however, retains its native Vabungula spelling, and is not replaced by the letter j.

When and occur as the semi-vowels "y" and "w", they are romanized as j and w.

Pronunciation

The letters d, k, n, v, b, g, p, t, m, s, l, h, f, and z are pronounced more or less like their English counterparts. The letter L is a "light" L as in German.

The other letters are pronounced as follows:

	a  as in father
	ê  as in bed
	u  as in food
	e  as in they
	o  as in go
	ss as in ship
	r  as in Spanish para
	i  as in police
	û  as in fun
	zz as in pleasure
	y  as in tin

Vabungula is completely phonetic. Words are always pronounced exactly as they are spelled. There are no exceptions.

Vowels in Vabungula are pure vowels, such as in Spanish, German, or Japanese. O and E do not glide into "ou" and "ei" as they do in English.

Vowels are not characterized by length, i.e., there is no distinction between long and short vowels, as is the case in many languages such as German, Hungarian, or Finnish.

Glottal stops can be used in Vabungula, but are not significant. Words tend to melt together without glottal stops, as in Spanish.

Vabungula tends to avoid consonant clusters. However, consonant clusters do occur, and occasionally in ways unfamiliar to English speakers. The words mna ("all") and mfa ("should") are pronounced exactly as they are written, without any vowel sound between the m and following consonant.

Stress is significant in Vabungula. The accent usually falls on the syllable that makes the word easiest to pronounce. There are no fixed rules.

Nouns ending in -L or -AL usually have the accent on the last syllable, or sometimes the first syllable.

   jansál    fullness
   gezamál   movement
   gelakarál feast
   lófamul   text

Changing the accent sometimes changes the meaning of the word:

   kómol egg
   komól swarm

   mê'no feel
   mênó  touch

This is particularly true with certain noun-verb pairs:

   águk    promise (verb)
   agúk    promise (noun)

   náducka punishment
   nadúcka punish

   dóducka reward (noun)
   dodúcka reward (verb)

Note the shift of stress in the following family of words:

       fwilágê    nothing
       fwilár     never 
       fwilám     nowhere 
but:   fwílasum   no one 
       fwílanudzz no way

Page last modified on December 9, 2000

Vabungula is an artificial language invented by Bill Price in 1965.

Vabungula co nûsk mugola famêlêtke onudzz Bill Price larla alara idekuzorekol.