El Aypentemanan Alayaklani
10 July 2007
Africa Esteholm, M.A (UCLA), Ph.D. (Cantab.)
Rector, School of Modern Languages [MS 31-254, Uwharrie Hall]
Vospeðimur Evgoven, M.ASc. (IAIR-MC)
Director, School of Community Planning and Cultural Design [MS 11-151,
Lompoc Hall]
Institute for Applied
Interrelationships (Mountain Creek, NC)
Preprint copy - subject to
correction
The Layaklan
sound system and alphabet currently consists of 36 characters, of which
26 are consonants (two double consonants, TX [represented as Ç]
and DJ [represented as J], and 24 single consonants) and
10 are monophthong vowels, all of which are expandable into 20
diphthong vowels ending in -oo or -ee, although those
variations are not considered separate letters of the alphabet.
Therefore, there are a total of 56 distinct potential phonemes which
comprise speech in the Layaklan
language. Layaklan
will add in additional commonly-used digraph clusters of consonants as
it grows. Early candidates for such addition include TL and SR.
Over the course of Layaklan's
evolution (from 1962 to the present), a romanised equivalent alphabet
has been devised to make this system somewhat more comprehenisble and
adaptable to the written communications systems now most commonly in
use.
All ten of the basic monophthong vowel sounds of Layaklan
are present in North American English, in everyday speech, and should
of themselves pose no difficulty to anyone capable of speaking North
American Standard English. All but two of the 26 consonants are also
present in North American English. Only Gh and Kh are
not native to English, and they have been respectively borrowed from
Arabic (Ğ representing Gh) and Russian (Q
representing Kh). R and L are pronounced with
more of a 'continental' pronunciation, as in European usage, in which
the R is slightly rolled, or 'breathed', and the L is formed by
the tip of the tongue and not by the raised back of the tongue as in
Standard North American English.
Many of the diphthongs formed by the vowels are also present in
Standard North American English, while others are audible in dialects,
and some are now unknown, but may be learned and used with attention to
the practices of formation.
Alphabetic order in Layaklan
El Aypentemanan alayaklani
is arranged in order as shown below:
A
P T
K S
Æ
E B
D G
Z I
Ï F Þ
Q
X O
Ö
V Ð Ğ
J Û
Ü
H M
N R U
Ÿ:
L W
Y Ç C
An
additional character, [¶], represented by the ASCII code
¶, denotes 'no consonant'. The ¶ character is solely used in linguistic
analysis, and it is not considered part of the alphabet as such.
Pronunication of vowels
The
monophthong vowels in Layaklan do not change timbre by
gaining or
losing stress, which is distinctly different from English and most
European languages. They are also more narrowly and specifically
defined phonetically than in English. The fundamental timbre values
are listed below:
vowel English form
example (from Standard English)
ASCII code
A =
a,
o, as in: father, modern, mama,
moth, not, mop, ahah
Æ = a as
in: cat, fast,
pack, fact, fat, lack, map, action
Æ, 230
E
= e
as in: wet, beckon,
melt, peg, dealt, dead, led
I = i as in:
wit, kick, middle,
vim, simulation, win
Ï
= ee,
ie, as in: seem, beam, seam,
weep, cheap, beech
Ï, 239
O
= o,
oa, as in: load, moat,
boat, dote, joke, nope
Ö [1]=
o as in:
boy, or, oyster,
nor, north
Ö, 246
Û
= u,
oo, as in: loot, two,
to, too, boot, moot, glue, lute,
coop Û, 251
Ü = ou, oul, as in: would, could, hoof,
foot, good, Butch
Ü, 252
U
= u,
o, as in: bug, but,
cuff, puppet, mother, shut, love, mug
Layaklan
vowels
form diphthongs by combining the following vowel sound of
Û
and Ï, respectively. Diphthongs are formed by joining the initial
vowel timbre formation to a second vowel timbre, -oo or -ee
respectively, in a glided, joined sound. It is not possible to
represent this system of thirty distinct vowel sounds consistent, by
using conventional or typical English spelling approxiimations. English
vowels are unreliable as phonetic representations to start with, and
the spellings to be used for representing diphthongs are even more
variable, so an arbitrary system of standardised accented characters
within Layaklan [2] has been adopted; this is made
possible through the use of ASCII fonts, for which code numbers have
been provided for both uppercase and lowercase forms.
The accent system usually uses a rising (acute
[']) accent mark to indicate that -ï (-ee sound) follows, and a
falling (grave [`]) accent mark to indicate that ü (-oo sound)
follows. Because of typeface limitations, this system has not been
possible for all characters, and so in many places arbitrary symbols
have been used.
Properties of vowels
There are seven primary properties of
vowels in Layaklan,
as in
English; there is an eighth property for an alarm signal.
1. Timbre
This is the way the vocal cavity resonates
as an harmonic chamber. Larynx, throat, mouth, teeth and lips are
involved. An example generic vowel of no specified timbre is not a pure
tone, or even a modulated tone, but a series of separate stacked
harmonic bands of greater or narrower width, the number and separation
also variable, as few as three, as many as six or seven. These harmonic
bands are generated by a fundamental provided by the larynx. When
displayed in a sonogram (depicting frequency vertical, time
horizontal), these form a set of horizontal bands with indeterminate
edges and varying separations and subwidths. The larynx and mouth parts
form a vowel timbre much as a musical instrument forms its
characteristic sound -- but on the analogy of a flexible ocarina
withvariable internal hard and soft parts which modulate the sound,
using acoustic wave interference to dampen and enhance the frequency
bands. Timbre is how we differentiate vowels into A, E, I, O, U, etc.
Vowels may be perceived as imitative 'names' or labels for harmonic
band sets recognised as particular timbres. This is not pitch, nor is
it dynamics.
2. Pitch
Pitch is the perceived average of the
blended sound in timbre. In musical terms, we resolve the leading tone
out of a received harmonic 'chord' to create the illusion of pure tone.
In singing mode, this switches to a different harmonic structure which
strengthens the perception of pitch and narrows the bands in width and
number, so that they project better.Singers are said to be not good
singers when they have 'too many harmonics' in their singing voices [3].
In humans, pitch and variations of pitch
discriminate sex and age, men lower, women higher, children higher
still with fewer formant bands (which makes them shrill). Pitch can
also vary, with various interpretations, to shift meaning, or suggest
type of statement, and may vary within a vowel, as it does in many
languages. This last variation has historically been especially
difficult to reduce to writing, although romanised Vietnamese does a
fairly decent job of it.
3. Length
Vowels can be short, medium or long in
relative duration in time. These
are usually discriminated and ordered by specific language and dialect.
Each language sets up its own unique usage patterns. The standard
pattern for Layaklan is that the basic is medium (shorter
than the English A in Father), slightly lengthened for
emphasized or stressed position, slightly shortened for unstressed. In
basic length, Layaklan does not differentiate monophthongs and
diphthongs in length; English does make this differentiation..
4. Stress
Stress or emphasis, with more or less
force, expresses as volume (more breath force) in the unskilled
speaker, and presence or projection (a cleaner, better-defined sound
which narrows and concentrates the energy of the sound) in the skilled
speaker. Variation in the amount of this force, between stressed and
unstressed, varies with language. English has a distinct stress.
Russian audibly makes more of a stress distinction. Layaklan's stress distinction is a bit more subtle than
that of English, and in this way, Layaklan is perhaps more similar to Japanese. An abrupt
increase of the normal average range of stress is an indication of
hostility.
5. Onset and fade
These factors describe the beginning of
the timbre and how it ends, respectively. Together, onset and fade
describe the rise-time, sustain and delay cycle of a vowel, and they
also describe how it can be interrupted. The styles of such
interruptions are consonants.
6. Mouth position
The primary focus of a vowel's fundamental
may be placed in various positions within the speaker's mouth. The
primary source of resonance is the back of the month; vowels may also
be produced within the middle of the mouth and the front of the mouth.
Also included here are the shape and openness of the mouth and lips,
and the volume and shape of the cavity channel through which the sound
proceeds.
7. Internal composition
When speaking monophthongs or
diphthongs, it is possible to begin in one vowel timbre and finish in
another, and in principle (although not in present understanding of Layaklan speech) it would be possible to pass through
more than two vowels within one utterance. It is fairly commonplace to
have the second sound of a diphthong be -oo (the Layaklan û) or -ee (the Layaklan ï), but these end-sounds can also begin
a vowel stream, in which case such vowels are termed 'palatalised' or
'labialised' (Y- or W- began, respectively). English
does not order vowels in this way; instead, it calls these forms
consonants in Y- or W-, but Russian on the other hand
does formally distinguish vowels as plain or as beginning with the Y-sound:
thus in Russian we see A and Ya, Eh and Ye,
i./ee, Oh and Yo, and Oo and Yoo.
Russian lacks a beginning W- sound.
English is somewhat irregular in this, and
also in its corresponding orthography. Layaklan is formal as regards endings, but not on
beginnings, which it calls consonants, in this case 'semi-vocalics' or
'sonants'.
8. Safe tone
The timbre set of harmonics is formed by
banded resonsances from a fundamental frequency, the basic timbre of
the mouth's shaped resonant cavity. In a condtion of emotional stress,
fear or anger, the vocal apparatus adjusts and distorts the shape
of the resonant cavity to suppress the sounding of the fundamental,
but leaves the remaining higher harmonic bands intact. The fundamental
is still there, you just cannot hear it in its original frequency. This
absence, actually an active acoustic suppression of the fundamental
alerts the other parts of the brain that an alarm exists, and predates
both language and primates. This effect may be tested with
non-primates, such as dogs. Safe tone may well be as old as the Permian
development of the brain stem.
In effect the bass fundamental drops out --
you hear this instantly in music, and you also hear when the bass
fundamental enters. When heard, it usually is immediately retransmitted
by the hearer(s), and it thus serves to warn indivuduals and associated
groups of danger. This may be heard in arguments which for no visible
reason turn suddenly ugly, and may of itself alon precipitate violence.
This is noted in speech by the idiomatic phrase, 'losing it', which is
quite the appropriate description.
This is reinforced by another trait, of
equally suppressing the higher bands to emphasize intimacy and safety,
as well as broadening the harmonics and dropping the volume, and
lowering the distinction between stressed and unstressed. Thus being
the case, intimate speech between lovers is often described as 'deep'
in men, and 'husky' in women.
Sonography is a useful tool for such analyses. In
terms of duration, most of the contents of words are vowels, so it is
possible through sonography to analyse the sound content, calculate and
estimate how short a sound-burst they really are. Consonants are almost
not there, typically 10% of the duration of vowels, or shorter, except
for the sibilants, which have the shirt break of consonants, but also a
high-frequency band above the proper vowel resonnces. This sibilant
strip is visible in a good sonogram.
Consonants
Given
below are consonants which are represented in non-English characters,
and those which are used with shifted values from Standard English.
consonant
English form example (from Standard English)
ASCII
code
Þ =
th as in: thing,
with, thanks, tooth
Þ, 254
Q = kh as
in: khorosho (Russian), loch
(Scottish), nach (German)
X = sh as
in: sheets, wish, mishmash,
sharp, she
Ð = th as
in: these, this, weather,
the
Ð, 240
Ğ = gh as
in: Arabic pronunciation of Baghdad,
ghraib (raven)
J = s, zh, as
in: leisure, pleasure; 'zh'; and as 'J' in French
Ÿ = -, ' as
in: uh-oh, Hawai'i, and as the glottal
stop heard in
some southern American dialects, as Little
[Liÿul] Metal [Meÿul} Bottle [Baÿul].
Ÿ. 255
Ç = ch as
in: church, chair,
much; also seen as
TX.
Ç, 230
C = j as
in: joke, jury, jam;
also seen as DJ.
H is never silent in any position; when used as
a final, as in 'bah, humbug'
R is slightly rolled as in European usages, but
not
the hard-rolled R,
as in Russian, or the Spanish RR.
L is formed by the tongue tip just behind the
front upper teeth,
in the European manner, and not open to the
sides and raised
to the back as in North American
English.
Y is never a vowel.
Using the native alphabet
As one will see, using the Layaklan
native alphabet itself eliminates the need for character substitutions,
but to accomplish that, one must learn to associate a character glyph
with a specific phoneme. This manual will stress initial pronunciation
first and then gradualy introduce the native characters [4]. Also,
please note that in Layaklan, a double consonant does not cause the
preceding vowel to be stressed, as it typically does in English.
Notes:
[1]
This vowel sound is found in English only when preceding -r or -y. In
Layaklan, it may be found in any association. It is easy to pronounce,
but English speakers have to force themselves to do so, because this
unconscious association is so strong. Many of the diphthongs are also
initially difficult, but only because they have had no previous usage.
[2] Romanised Layaklan
(L-romaji) also follows the plan that a stressed syllable is always
indicated by an underline beneath the root vowel of that syllable.
L-romaji also serve very well for phonetic transcriptions of English,
including spoken forms.
[3] This was Peter Gabriel's problem, and he never cured
it.
[4] For a True Type font of the native characters, see QEElaneNord.ttf
[elayp-ae.htm -- html version, 31 Dec 2007 -- keywords: sounds,
phonetic values, concepts, sequence of alphabet] ð