Foreword Basic phrases Lessons Dictionary
| Glyph | IPA |
|---|---|
| p | /p/ |
| t | /t/ |
| k | /k/ |
| f | /f/ |
| s | /s/ |
| x | /ʃ/ |
| b | /b/ |
| d | /d/ |
| g | /g/ |
| v | /v/ |
| z | /z/ |
| q | /ʒ/ |
| l | /l/ |
| n | /n/ |
| r | /r/ |
| m | /m/ |
| h | /h/ |
| Glyph | IPA |
|---|---|
| a | /a/ |
| e | /ɛ/ |
| i | /i/ |
| o | /o/ |
| u | /u/ |
| y | /ə/ |
Xextan is written with the Latin alphabet, or alternatively with kaxxol script, an alphasyllabary inspired by Korean Hangeul.
In the basic Latin orthography, unless otherwise specified, all predicates carry high pitch accent (or tone) on the initial syllable and low pitch on any trailing syllables, while particles carry low pitch. Any syllables which carry an irregular pitch for their shape is indicated by an acute accent á for high pitch, and a grave accent à for low pitch.
With the exception of y, which only occurs in names and loanwords (and only hypothetically, as there are currently no words in the dictionary which contain it), all vowels may additionally be nasalized, which is indicated in writing by placing a tilde above the letter, such as ã. Diphthongs may also be nasalized, in which case the mark is placed over the first vowel, as in ãu.
The only consonants permitted at the end (coda) of root words and root-shaped syllables are stops and sonorants, including /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /l/, /n/. Xextan does not phonemically distinguish voicing of syllable-final stops: in compounds, a syllable-final voiceless stop will assimilate its voicing to a following voiced consonant, except /l/ and /n/.
Similarly, the nasal /n/ will assimilate its position to the following consonant, becoming /m/ before labial consonants and /ŋ/ before velar consonants. These sound changes are not reflected in the orthography, except where a stop forms a geminate with a following stop, in which case the syllable-final stop is written as its voiced counterpart, e.g. seddqe.
Like most logical languages, Xextan words abide by the principle that “form follows function”. That is, different kinds of words may be easily distinguished by their shape.
The most basic types of Xextan words are roots, which follow either a CVC or CCV pattern, with C representing consonants and V representing vowels. CVC roots must end in either p, t, k, l, or n, and CCV roots must contain a valid consonant cluster. Roots generally represent basic concepts which cannot easily be expressed as a compound derived from other roots. An exception allows roots corresponding to higher-level, less fundamental concepts if the semantic unit happens to be itself particularly useful in forming a wide variety of compounds. In terms of semantic space, they correspond to verbs, nouns, and adjectives/adverbs in natural languages. However, all roots are are predicates, meaning that by defauly they behave as a verb or nucleus of a verb phrase, even for dictionary entries that one would think of as representing a noun or adjective.
Below you will find a few rudimentary examples of Xextan root predicates.
xen (“to become”)
qlu (“to be yellow”)
tsa (“to be a plant”)
Note that the English definitions contain the infinitive "to" or copula "to be" to emphasize that roots and other predicates always behave as verb phrases when left to their own devices; however, further examples in this book will generally feature a short-form gloss. Nevertheless, do not forget that a even a "noun-like" predicate such as tsa cannot be used as a noun phrase unless it is explicitly converted from a predicate into an argument. (See Lesson 2 for more information.)
Roots can even be chained together to form compounds, where the first syllable is pronounced with high pitch accent and all subsequent syllables with low pitch accent:
vlabuk “[to be a] dictionary”
vla + buk “word” + “book”
xutfli “[to] swim”
xut + fli “water” + “float”
fengingop “[to be a] queen”
fen + gin + gop “female” + “family” + “govern”
While roots on their own tend to stand for their literal meaning unless otherwise specified, compounds are more opaque, and may technically be constructed from a generalization, analogy, or metaphor. However, they do generally strive for enough intuitiveness to allow one to at least guess at the meaning of an unfamiliar compound based only on its constituent parts, which means that most compounds consist of a fairly literal description of the thing, action, or property in question.
Where metaphor is required, I recommend sticking to simple or self-explanatory analogies or symbols which are likely to be widely understood across various cultures. Conversely, compounds should avoid idioms, allusions, or other figures of speech which rely extensively on the listener's familiarity with a specific cultural context.
The other major class of native Xextan words is particles, which serve special grammatical functions and take the form V, CV, and CVV. A few examples include the personal pronouns ni and vo, the case markers o, e, and a, and the numbers 0-9.
Finally, all valid words with shapes that count as neither roots nor compounds nor particles belong to a catch-all class of words known as "freewords". Freewords are predicates, like roots and compounds, and are used for personal names, borrowed words, cultural terms, taxonomic classifications, and various other purposes.