Eklektu Language Lesson 1: the basics

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Pronunciation

Each word in Eklektu is pronounced as it is spelled. Double letters (which mainly occur in compounds) should be pronounced as two distinct sounds. A glottal stop (a brief pause) may be added between double vowels in words like akiapola'au (a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper). An unstressed "schwa" vowel may be added between consonants in a difficult cluster (such as the extra "a" in some dialectal pronunciations of English athlete: "ath-a-lete").

Eklektu uses 25 letters of the Latin alphabet, excluding "q". The pronunciation of most Eklektu letters is similar to the pronunciation of many European languages, such as French and English. Note that the "p", "t", and "k" sounds are unaspirated, as in English spider, stingray, and skunk, not aspirated as in panda, tiger, and kite. The "r" should be trilled, as in Spanish, and the "l" should always be the clear sound of "l" in leaf.

Primary stress is on the last syllable, if it ends in a consonant (te-le-FON), otherwise on the previous syllable (TEN-ki). Compound words have a secondary stress on each root (,bov-'KARN, ,u-xo-a-'NEL). For purposes of determining stress, all adjacent vowels are considered to belong to the same syllable (KAR-dia), even if separated by a glottal stop (a-kia-PO-la'au). One-syllable particles (de) usually have no stress, or only secondary stress. Other one-syllable words are stressed, or even slightly elongated if necessary for clarity (FO). Exceptions to these rules (as in foreign names) are marked with an acute accent (he MÍ-ci-gan). Elongated vowels (especially in names) are optionally marked with a circumflex accent (fô, he Tolkîn).

letter  sound*  approximate English equivalent
a       [A]     as in "AArdvArk"
b       [b]     as in "Bat"
c       [S]     as in "SHark"
d       [d]     as in "Dog"
e       [E]     as in "Elephant"
f       [f]     as in "Finch"
g       [g]     as in "Gorilla"
h       [h]     as in "Horse"
i       [I]     as in "dEEr"
j       [Z]     as in "aZure-winged magpie"
k       [k]     as in "sKunk"
l       [l]     as in "Leopard"
m       [m]     as in "Mouse"
n       [n]     as in "Nighthawk"
o       [O]     as in "bOAr"
p       [p]     as in "sPider"
r       [r]     as in "Rabbit"
s       [s]     as in "Snake"
t       [t]     as in "sTingray"
u       [U]     as in "rOOk"
v       [v]     as in "Vulture"
w       [w]     as in "Wallaby"
x       [x]     as in "Gila monster"
y       [j]     as in "Yak"
z       [z]     as in "Zebra"
*These symbols are explained on the SAMPA web site.

Vocabulary

The core vocabulary of Eklektu consists of two types of roots: main roots and auxiliary roots. Main roots include the majority of the vocabulary. They can be used as nouns, and some of them also as verbs. For example, kur means "the act of running" as well as "to run". Auxiliary roots include prepositions and suffixes, which modify the meaning of the main roots and describe their function in the phrase or sentence.

The majority of the main roots are derived from one or more natural languages (and a few fictional ones). The etymology of an Eklektu word is intended as a mnemonic, but not necessarily an accurate guide to the meaning. Eklektu words can sometimes be more precise than their natural language counterparts. For example, in English we use the same word "heart" in the phrases "heart disease", "learn by heart", "heart of Texas", and "Queen of Hearts", but Eklektu uses a different word for each meaning.

heart   (core) kor; (organ) kardia; (emotional) cin; (shape) hart

cin     [Chi. xin] part of the subconscious mind responsible for such
        emotions and abilities as love, courage, and rote memorization;
        heart
hart    [Eng. heart] a shape with two rounded lobes at the top and a point
        at the bottom; heart
kardia  [Gre. kardia] organ that pumps blood; heart
kor     [Lat. cor] distinct or vital central part; core, heart
In other cases, a single Eklektu word can stand for a number of natural-language words of similar meaning.

ag      [Lat. agere] to perform, act, play (a role, music), recite
ala     [Fin. ala] area, place, region, extent
par     [Spa. parir] to give birth (to); to lay (eggs)
reg     [Lat. rex, reg-] king, queen, monarch
taxi    [Gre. tachys] quick, swift, fast, rapid; velocity, speed
Eklektu words are almost all borrowed from various natural languages such as Greek (kardia "heart"), Latin (ov "egg"), English (flok "flock"), Japanese (sakura "cherry tree"), even less familiar languages such as Cherokee (kiyuga "chipmunk") and Jirrbal (gudjila "bandicoot"), though the exact meaning of the Eklektu word may not be the same as in the original language.

Both personal and place names are marked with the optional particle "he", "the one known as" (he Tcaikofski "Tchaikovsky", he Cikago "Chicago"). The native name of a place should be used if known (he Espanya "Spain", not *he Spein). Names that are stressed on a syllable other than the one normally stressed in Eklektu should be written with an acute accent mark on the stressed syllable, if this is available: he Parí "Paris", he Céikspir "Shakespeare".

As an example of Eklektu word selection, consider the birds of the family Laridae (gulls and terns). Many languages have a word for "gull" (Japanese kamome, Russian chajka), and a word for "tern" (Japanese ajisashi, Russian krachka). A few languages also have specific names for certain species or genera (English kittiwake=Rissa, noddy=Anous or Procelsterna; French guifette=Chlidonias, Japanese umineko=Larus crassirostris; Russian klusha=Larus fuscus). French and Swedish distinguish two different kinds of gulls: French goéland and mouette, Swedish trut and mås. Spanish doesn't have a unique word for "tern", but uses gaviota "gull", golondrina-marina "sea-swallow", charrán, pagaza, tirra, fumarel, or tiñosa.

A few of the candidates for "gull":

Gaviota and kamome are rejected as being too long. That leaves four candidates, which are Eklektuized as lar, guilan, mew, and tcaika. Lar conflicts with the existing plural suffix, and it is also a candidate for the family Laridae as a whole, so the other one-syllable word mew is selected to translate "gull", with guilan and tcaika left as alternates (in case some other word takes over mew).

A few of the candidates for "tern":

Ajisashi is rejected as being too long. This leaves the very similar tern/stern words and the Russian krachka. Stern is chosen as the Eklektu word for "tern".

Individual species frequently take their names from the Latin name. This avoids problems such as the meaning of the phrase penog mew: is it the English Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) or the German Heringsmöwe (Larus fuscus)? In Eklektu, the Herring Gull is argentli mew, and the Lesser Black-backed Gull is mork mew. However, a number of Latin names are inaccurate or misleading, and many are eponymous rather than descriptive. In those cases, the Eklektu name may be chosen from another language, or invented.

Vocabulary for Lesson 1

ag            to perform, act, play, recite
akiapolaau    a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper (Hemignathus munroi)
ala           area, place, region, extent
anel          ring
argent        silver
argentli      silvery, resembling silver
bov           cow (domestic cattle)
bovkarn       beef
cin           heart (emotional)
flok          flock
fo            false (not authentic)
gudjila       bandicoot
hart          heart-shape
he            the-one-known-as (aux.)
he Céikspir   Shakespeare
he Cikago     Chicago
he Espanya    Spain
he Mícigan    Michigan
he Parí       Paris
he Tcaikofski Tchaikovsky
he Tolkîn     Tolkien
kardia        heart (organ)
karn          meat
kiyuga        chipmunk
kor           core, heart
kur           to run
lar           more than one (plural suffix)
*lar          possible alternative for "gull, tern" (Laridae)
mew           gull
mork          dark
ov            egg
par           to give birth (to); to lay (eggs)
penog         herring
reg           king, queen, monarch
sakura        cherry tree
stern         tern
taxi          quick, swift, fast, rapid; velocity, speed
telefon       telephone
tenki         weather
uxo           ear
uxoanel       earring
Onward to Lesson 2.

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