In Sona, the Latin alphabet is used, with a total of 24 default letters. The letters q and w are excluded from Sona root-words, but are allowed to be used in foreign words if necessary.
| 12 CONSONANTS: | g, d, z, m, b, l |
| k, t, s, n, p, r | |
| 6 ASPIRATES: | f, v, c, j, x, h |
| 6 VOWELS: | a, e, i, o, u, y |
Most of these letters are pronounced the same as English. However, there are a few letters that you might want to take into consideration.
The vowels are the respective five vowel system: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/.
a is pronounced as /a/, like Spanish casa.
e is pronounced as /e/, like Spanish leche.
i is pronounced as /i/, like Spanish mi.
o is pronounced as /o/, like in Spanish poco.
u is pronounced as /u/, like in E. food.
c is pronounced as /ʧ/, like E. chin.
j can either be pronounced as /ʤ/ like E. joy, or /ʒ/, like E. measure.
x is pronounced as /ʃ/, like E. shake.
g is pronounced as /g/, like E. game.
z is mostly recommended to be pronounced as /z/, but if the learner wants to, some allophones they can use instead are /ʣ/, and /ʦ/.
r is mostly recommended to be pronounced as /ɾ/, but if the learner wants to, they can associate r with whatever r sounds like in their native language.
u, despite being a vowel, is also used for the consonant /w/ in the radicals ua, ue, ui, and uo.
y is the only letter with more than one pronunciation. It is most often pronounced as /j/ when used as an epithesis. When at the end of a word, or on its own, it is pronounced as schwa. Notice the difference between y and i.
There are no diphthongs in Sona. Adjacent vowels are pronounced in separate syllables.
pia /piˌa/ mue /muˌe/ juo /ʤuˌo/
Stress should not be taken into consideration in Sona, since each radical is easily distinguishable from each other. The most recommended system would be a system similar to Japanese “moras", or the stress system in your native language. However, for Foreign Words, the speaker might want to pronounce stress in the same way from which it originates.
The general syllable structure in Sona is (C)V(N). Proper nouns do not have to conform to the syllable structure though. Radicals can come in many different forms: Primary (CV) ta, te, ti... Nasal (CVn) tan, ten, tin... Disyllable ata, ite, uti... Vowel Only (V) a, e, i... Vowel + Nasal (Vn) an, en, in... U + Vowel ua, ue, ui, uo A + Vowel au The Radicals containing the letters c, j, x, f, v, or h only have CV and CVn forms, meaning separate root-words such as aci, ixe and uho do not exist. If such a combination of letters is created, it is automatically made up of two separate Radicals. a.ci → aci e.fa → efa a.fu → afu
The letter y in Sona has an important function. It serves as an epithesis for radicals. In other words, the letter y is inserted between radicals to prevent ambiguity and make words easier to pronounce. There are a few places where this special letter is used. The first place is when two hard vowels (a, e, and o) are next to each other. a-e - ra-e → raye a-o - ta-o → tayo e-a - re-a → reya e-o - ze-o → zeyo o-a - bo-a → boya o-e – mo-e → moye The second place is when two of the same vowel are next to each other. na-a → naya ke-e → keye do-o → doyo fu-u → fuyu However, there is one exception. In the case where two i’s end up next to each other, the letter y is not inserted between them two. It is simply left as ii. This is so speakers from other languages have an easier time pronouncing these sorts of syllables. The third case is when the nasal ending -n is next to a radical starting with a vowel. on-e → onye in-u → inyu dan-a → danya The letter y is always right before a vowel. it cannot appear in the end of a word unless it is foreign. It can also appear at the end of a word when representing the specific consonants in Sona. In this case, y is pronounced as the schwa. You will need to consider this when spelling your name out in Sona. You may ask, “How then will I distinguish, say, a-go from ago? I can’t use “aygo” for a-go since the letter y can’t appear before a consonant.” You make a valid point. In this case, we do not just use the letter y for cases like these, we use -ye- instead. a-go → ayego a-za → ayeza However, this only applies for the particle a preceding a Primary. There are no words in Sona which start with the particles i or u. Additionally, Disyllables can only start with either a, i, or u, so e and o should not be considered. When the suffix -a is followed by a Primary, the syllable -ci- should be inserted to prevent creating a compound that might be analyzed several different ways. pi-a-pi-ga → piacipiga zi-a-to → ziacito pi-api-ga → piapiga zi-ato → ziato You should not worry about these too much. These instances are quite rare in Sona, but are good to keep in mind when the time comes.
Gemination is when a consonant is pronounced for a longer period of time. Every Primary has its Secondaries (eg. The Primary ta has Secondaries tan, ata, ita, and uta). In Sona, this only occurs when a Disyllable (VCV) and a Primary (CV) have the same (CV) pair, the vowel between the two consonants is omitted, and the consonant combo becomes geminated. ata-ta → atta /atːa/ uma-ma → umma /umːa/ ibo-bo → ibbo /ibːo/ ute-ten → utten /utːen/ However, there is the issue of gemination occuring in the case of “nVnV” turning into “nnV”, thus turning such words as in.no & ino.no → inno. The best solution is to avoid geminating. Thus: in-no → inno and ino-no → inono Foreign Words Proper nouns, names, and other foreign loanwords are usually written Sona's alphabet and phonology, and always begin with capital letters. Some very specific words which are difficult to explain in Sona, or which have an internationally recognized name, are better “Sona-fied” than translated. Virtually everywhere in the world, the beverage made by infusing coffee beans in water is called “coffee”, “kafe”, or a similar-sounding variation, so we call it Kafe, translating it into something like “dark energizing bean drink” serves no helpful purpose for cross:cultural communication. In this way, whiskey becomes Uiski, aluminium becomes Alumin, email is Imeil, and centimeter is sonko Miter. It might help to use Sona words to provide additional context when you're unsure if your audience will understand you: the word “spaghetti” is used almost everywhere except China, where it is called yìdàlì miàn (“Italy noodles”), so in conversation, one might say Spageti ugipagan (“tangled food”) to make it more clear to the listener. Be creative! Names are adapted similarly: Charles becomes Carles, Charlotte becomes Xarlot, and Carl becomes Karl. However, one may personally see the Sona-fication of names as a guideline rather than a rule; it should be up to the individual to decide how to spell their name. (Someone named Shaun might not want their name spelt Xan—Sona for “thanks”!)
Sona is unique for its ability to have various combinations of sentence formation. For instance, ke hani tu = kehani tu = ke hanitu = kehanitu. But why is such a feature necessary? In East Asian Languages, writing systems such as Han Chinese, Kana and Hangeul do not separate words with spaces. To stay consistently neutral, speakers have the free will to sort their words however they may choose. You can space everything out, you can make every sentence as a single word!
Radicals are essential to the Sona Language. They are essentially the building blocks of Sona, where each radical carries a set of specific ideas, often related to each other. For example, te relates to ideas such as “hand”, “project”, and “take,”. When referring to these ideas, radicals are not explicitly defined by these words. They are simply approximations to help you understand the core meaning of the radical. Many words are provided for definition to prevent any confusion from arising. For instance, “project” in English can either indicate the noun “collaborative enterprise” or as the verb “to estimate” without any further context. It's also worth remembering that most radicals aren't necessarily nouns, adjectives, verbs, particles, or any traditional part of speech; they are simply ideas that change depending on the structure of the sentence, or the context of the situation. Often radicals require “indicators” and other contextual cues to make their form and meaning clear. We'll learn more about this as we go along. Now we must discuss The Radical Scheme. For example, the group GE consists of the following: ge: and, join, chain, link gen: compound, mix, blend age: meet, contact ige: cohere, stick, cling uge: cumulus, pile, heap You might notice the correlation between these five radicals; they all are defined to be some sort of coalescing. Thus, every group in Sona has radicals which consist of similar, but sufficiently different enough meanings. Every group starting with a consonant has 5 radicals, unlike groups starting with aspirates (j, c, x, h, v, f) which have only 2 radicals. Building Vocabulary More intricate and complex ideas can be expressed by juxtaposing certain radicals with one another. Not all ideas can be expressed simply with 375 radicals on their own. For example, let us combine the radicals ru and su to get ru (move) + su (water) = rusu The word rusu can be interpreted as a word indicating a type of water that moves. A river perhaps? A stream? All of these are possible answers. What about this? su (water) + ru (move) = suru The word suru can be interpreted as a word indicating a type of movement that involves water. This may be akin to “flowing”. Let’s take a look at another example between ika and ve. ika (point) + ve (plant) = ikave cactus ve (plant) + ika (point) = veika thorn By observation, a cactus is a type of plant with a pointy-like nature. Similarly, a thorn is a type of point with a plant-like nature. But why would suru & rusu and ikave & veika mean different things if they include the same radicals? In Sona, a fundamental principle known as the Prefix-Suffix Rule answers this question. Radicals closer to the beginning of a word are emphasized more compared to radicals closer to the end of a word. A way to look at this is that radicals nearer to the end of a word form a base, of which the radicals up front fill in the details. This rule exists in English as well. Take for example the words “house” and “dog.” The word “housedog” refers to a type of dog that is in relation with a house. Similarly, a “doghouse” is a type of house in relation with dogs.