(In addition to the guide sections listed in the table below and in the navigation bar at the head of each section, this directory also contains an introductory preamble page which you shouldn't need to go back to.)
| SECTION | SUBSECTIONS | |
|---|---|---|
| I: | GLOSSARY | Table of Contents, Notation, Terminology |
| II: | SOUNDS | Letters, Syllables, Words |
| III: | NUMBERS | Plurals, Person, Counting |
| IV: | NOUNS | Gender, Case, Regular Nouns, Irregular Nouns |
| V: | ADJUNCTS | Adjectives, Adverbs, Postpositions, Possessives |
| VI: | PRONOUNS | Personal, Demonstratives, Suffixes, Adverbials |
| VII: | VERBS | Prefixes, Negation, Aspect, Verb‐suffixes |
| VIII: | CLAUSES | Sentences, Active Verbs, Linking Verbs, Reflexive Verbs |
| IX: | SYNTAX | Word‐order, Connected Clauses, Relatives, Participials |
| X: | COINAGES | Compounding, Suffixing, The Syllabificator |
| XI: | EXAMPLES | Example Sentences, Example Text |
| XII: | LEXICON | A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Originally these pages used Kirshenbaum ASCII‐IPA, but now that Unicode‐capable browsers are standard I've switched over to a more up‐to‐date scheme: square brackets [like this] indicate IPA pronunciation guides and angle‐brackets like this indicate samples of the language itself in the standard spelling (though those angles won't be visible if your browser is ignoring my CSS).
“The standard spelling” in this case means a transcription in the Roman alphabet. For the further convenience of learners, raised dots are inserted to help keep prefixes and suffixes visually distinct, as in man·ulasu·ap “I don't know”. Remember, though: dividing the words up like this is a feature of this guide, not part of the “real‐life” writing system that would be used in a translated text.
The language doesn't have an alphabet of its own – I produced a fantasy writing system to go with it, but since it was only “suggested” rather than a definite part of the package, and since in retrospect the particular letter‐forms I used weren't terribly exciting, I'll leave it out here. Suffice it to say that it was a Devanagari‐style syllable‐based script (an “abugida”), where squiggle‐with‐accent means ki, squiggle‐without‐accent means ka, and squiggle‐with‐dot means a k with no following vowel.
For those of you with a hazy understanding of all this stuff about prenounial verbundives, here's a very basic quick‐reference guide, incorporating a key to the abbreviations used in section XII, the lexicon.
