Lesson 1 — Sounds and spelling
Basalo's alphabet consists of 19 letters; 14 consonants and 5 vowels. Basalo uses the regular English alphabet, minus the letters h, j, q, r, w, x, or z.
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, s, t, u, v, y
Sounds
The unique thing about Basalo is that its sounds are able to be pronounced a variety of ways. Most are pronounced the same as in English:
- p, t, k — like in pay, take, king
- b, d, g — like in bay, darn, game
- f — like in famous
- m, n — like in morning, noon
- y — like in year, yawn
- a — like in father
- i — like in teeth or bit
- u — like in tooth or foot
- e — like in bet
- o — like in oh
Never pronounce vowels as an 'uh' sound, like in but!
A couple are pronounced sometimes like in English, but with some variations:
- s — like in sat, but also like think, that, and zap
- v — like in vine, but also like wine
- l — like in lake, but also like rake
And the last one is pronounced much differently than in English:
- c — like in church or jump
You might see two vowels right next to each other, or a vowel at the beginning of a word. To aid with pronunciation, it's required to add a small "stop" between each vowel or before the vowel respectively; this "stop" is like the hyphen in "uh-oh". A word like mai is pronounced like "ma-i"
Stress
Basalo has no contrasting stress; there's no difference between words like permit versus permit, like in English. Generally, any syllable can be stressed.
Examples
We'll look at a few words in Basalo and how to pronounce them:
| Basalo | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| un | one | oon (not "uhn") |
| salam | person | sah-lahm |
| inaki | dog | ee-nah-kee |
| caval | horse | chah-vahl, chah-wall |
| bumi | Earth | boo-mee |
| kafe | coffee | kah-feh |
| yati | speak | yah-tee |
| meso | middle | meh-soh, meh-zoh |
Capitalization and punctuation
In Basalo, there is no capitalization needed at all. Optionally, you can use capitalization at the beginning of sentences to help with reading. Beyond that, Basalo uses most basic punctuation, like question marks, excalamtion points, periods, and commas.
- imut sin! — "Good to see you!"
- sin e mea amal, o yon! — "Meet my friend, John!"
- ka me kan e lel? — "Can I have it?"
- me kisa, ga lel yo u. — "I think that he's there." (note: the comma here is optional)