Dentu desqes
Dentú desqesa "Good
morning". This expression may be used until midday.
Dentu desus
Dentú desusa "Good
afternoon" or "Good day" ("hello"). This expression may be
used from noon until it gets dark.
Dentu desqou
Dentú desqova "Good
evening".
Dentu hus
Dentú husa "Good night".
Use this expression when someone is retiring for the night.
The first greeting of the above pairs are
radicals in apposition: i.e., they are behaving as compounds (two words put together to
give a third meaning, such as "bookcase"), which, strictly speaking, they are
not. The second greeting of the above pairs shows through inflexion their proper
grammatical relationship. As such, the first greeting sounds less "formal" than
the second; e.g., friends would greet each other with dentu desqes, while an
employee, watching his p's and q's, might prefere to greet his boss with dentú deqesa.
(Compounds and inflexion will be covered in future lessons.)
Evon stadentutta
"Goodbye" or "Good night". Use this expression when you leave
(morning, afternoon or evening). or to someone when retiring for the night.
Evon starebiatta
"Goodbye". Use this expression when parting from a meeting.
Evon uza
Iher uza "Goodbye" [lit.
"until the future"]. An informal expression. (Iher uza was coined by
Michael Helsem, Taneraic's first language student.)
Aju
Ajú "Hello" or "Goodbye".
An informal expression upon meeting or parting.
Ni buneviliratta? "Do you
understand?"
(Hoje,) vaneviliratta "(Yes,)
I understand."
(Rah,) rah vaneviliratta
"(No,) I do not understand."
Trasi xayar "Very good."
THE ALPHABET:
1. Below are set out the letters you have
met in the Useful Expressions above. For a more thorough guide to pronunciation, consult Principles
of Taneraic.
/a/ is pronounced like a in father;
/b/ is pronounced like b in bat or dab; /d/ is
pronounced like d in dog; /h/ is pronounced like h in hat (even
in final position: eg, rah); /j/ is pronounced like s in pleasure;
/l/ is pronounced like l in long (but not like l in soul);
/o/ is pronounced like French o in donne; /q/ is pronounced
like a glottal stop (eg, like Cockney ck in knock-out); /r/ is
pronounced like the trilled Italian r in caro; /s/ is pronounced like
s in sit; /t/ is pronounced like t in tap or bat;
/u/ is pronounced like oo in food; /v/ is pronounced like v
in vat; /x/ is pronounced like Scottish ch in loch; /y/
is pronounced like y in yet; /z/ is pronounced like z in zest.
2. Doubled consonants must
be pronounced separately: sta/re/biat/ta
3. Syllables: Most
syllables begin with a consonant; syllables ending in a vowel are called open;
syllables ending in a consonant are called closed. DEN -- TU DE -- SQES (closed) (open) (open) (closed)
Being able to identify syllables is
important for three reasons:
(a) the vowel /e/ and
consonant /n/ have a distinct pronunciation change in open and closed syllables:
/e/ in closed
syllables is pronounced like e in pet: dentu, stadentutta, the second e of
desqes, iher
/e/ in open
syllables is pronounced like French é in café: desus, desqou, evon, starebiatta,
neviliratta, hoje, the first e of desqes
/n/ at the beginning
of a syllable is pronounced like n in night: neviliratta
/n/ at the
end of a syllable is pronounced like French nasal n in sens: dentu, evon, stadentutta
(The expression evon uza is
correctly pronounced without liaison: /evon / uza/; in rapid speech, however, /evonnuza/
may be heard.)
(b) only the twelve
consonant clusters /br/, /tr/, /scy/, /sl/, /sm/, /sn/,
/sp/, /sq/, /sr/, /st/, /sv/ and /sx/ may also
open a syllable: de/sqes, sta/den/tut/ta,
tra/si
(c) only the seven
consonants /b/, /h/, /n/, /q/, /r/, /s/ and /t/
may close a syllable: rah/, e/von/,
de/sqes/, i/her/, xa/yar/
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