Lesson 1 — Sounds and spelling
Baslamo's alphabet consists of 19 letters; 14 consonants and 5 vowels:
p, t, k, b, d, g, f, s, x, v, l, j, m, n
a, i, u, e, o
Sounds
The unique thing about Baslamo 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
- a — like in cat or father
- i — like in teeth or bit
- u — like in tooth or push
- e — like in bet
- o — like in bone
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 two are pronounced much differently than in English:
- x — like in church or jump
- j — like in year
Stress
Baslamo 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 Baslamo and how to pronounce them:
| Baslamo | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| okol | leg | OH-kohl |
| usu | sibling | OO-soo, OO-zoo |
| son | sun | SOHN (not like SUHN) |
| salam | person | SA-lam, SAH-rahm |
| kitap | book | KEE-tap, KEE-tahp |
| un | one | OON |
| jati | speak | YAH-tee |