= = = LESSON 1 = = =

Phonology and Orthography

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Before we dive into BreadSpeak grammar and semantics, we should cover pronunciation and spelling. Learning a language is difficult if you cannot read or write it!

BreadSpeak has the same A-E-I-O-U vowel scheme as Spanish and Japanese, which will be familiar if you have studies these languages. The list below shows how to pronounce each vowel:

• A = "a" in "bat" or "pack"
• E = "e" in "bet" or "pen"
• I = "ee" in "beet" or "seem"
• O = "oa" in "boat" or "foam"
• U = "oo" in "boot" or "soon"

I'm not sure if there is a natural language with the exact consonant inventory as BreadSpeak. If there is, please let me know! Regardless, here are the consonants:

• K = "k" in "key" or "kit"
• G = "g" in "get" or "goal"
• S = "s" in "sit" or "soap"
• Z = "z" in "zip" or "zone"
• T = "t" in "tan" or "tool"
• D = "d" in "dot" or "dig"
• F = "f" in "fan" or "fill"
• V = "v" in "van" or "vest"
• P = "p" in "pan" or "pet"
• B = "b" in "ban" or "bowl"

Every BreadSpeak words consists of one or more syllables in a row. Each syllable, in turn, contains exactly one consonant followed by exactly one vowel. Since BreadSpeak has 10 consonants and 5 vowels, there are 50 possible syllables. Here is a nice little table showing all of the possible syllables:

Ka	Ga	Sa	Za	Ta	Da	Fa	Va	Pa	Ba
Ke	Ge	Se	Ze	Te	De	Fe	Ve	Pe	Be
Ki	Gi	Si	Zi	Ti	Di	Fi	Vi	Pi	Bi
Ko	Go	So	Zo	To	Do	Fo	Vo	Po	Bo
Ku	Gu	Su	Zu	Tu	Du	Fu	Vu	Pu	Bu

The list below shows some example BreadSpeak words, including an approximation of how to pronounce them. This will give you a sense of how the words look and sound:

• Vedo (water) = "veh-doh"
• Ka (cause or create) = "kah"
• Sezu (many) = "seh-zoo"
• Bati (cut) = "bah-tee"

Be careful, because English pronunciation rules do not apply in BreadSpeak! Letters are never silent, and are always pronounced in the same way. For example:

• Fade (bread) = "fah-deh", NOT "feid"!
• Geso (circle) = "geh-soh", NOT "jesso"!

BreadSpeak has its own script for writing words. In the BreadSpeak writing system, each syllable is just a single character. The image below shows each BreadSpeak character and its Roman alphabet equivalent:

You will probably notice a pattern in the characters. The top half of each character determines the consonant, while the bottom half determines the vowel:

The other feature worth noticing is that all "voiced" consonants contain a horizontal line through the center. "Unvoiced" consonants do not have this line. Every BreadSpeak consonant is part of a voiced/unvoiced pair. Try pronouncing each one while holding a finger next to your throat. You should feel your throat vibrate with voiced consonants:

Unvoiced	K	S	T	F	P
Voiced	G	Z	D	V	B

These lessons will use the Roman alphabet instead of BreadSpeak script. This is because the Roman alphabet is easier to read for a beginner, and easier to type on a computer. However, if you still want to learn BreadSpeak script, you can use this utility:

Script Practice Utility

There is more structure to BreadSpeak words than random syllables stuck together. For every word containing multiple syllables, the first syllable always has a special meaning. The first syllable gives you a strong idea of the subject matter of the word:

First syllable	Category meaning	Example words
Ta-	Related to time	Tadu = Year Taso = After Taza = New
Pe-	Related to life	Pepa = Plant Pegi = Healthy Pezo = Breathe
Ba-	Related to force	Bade = Push Babo = Weight Bazu = Strong

BreadSpeak has twenty of such categories in total. The table above only shows three of them.

The first-syllable mechanism is intended to aid in memorization of words. It can also help you guess the meaning of a word if you've never seen it before.

One nifty little feature is that you can easily derive the antonym of any multi-syllable word. (An antonym has the opposite meaning of the original word.) Just perform a vowel change on the first syllable like so:

Original word	How to form antonym
First syllable contains A	Change A in first syllable to U
First syllable contains E	Change E in first syllable to I

The purpose of this antonym derivation is to reduce the number of words to learn. If you memorize the base form of a word, you get the antonym for free! Here are some examples:

Original word	Antonym
Gagi = Good	Gugi = Bad
Pago = In front of	Pugo = Behind
Zada = Full	Zuda = Empty
Gefi = Long	Gifi = Short
Sezu = Many	Sizu = Few
Feta = Enjoy	Fita = Dislike

You might be asking yourself, "What happens if the first vowel is O??" Worry not, for BreadSpeak does not have any multi-syllable words whose first vowel is O. This means that EVERY multi-syllable word has a corresponding antonym form. Wow, the creator of BreadSpeak is such a nice guy! ;-)

Now you might be thinking, "Many words don't have antonyms that make sense!" You're right, a lot of BreadSpeak antonyms are incoherent. For example: Zuga = Anti-furniture, and Pipo = Anti-fungus. However, this leaves some room for creativity. For example, you could use Pika (anti-human) to insult your enemies, or Vuse (anti-government) to make a political statement.

Congrats, you're done with the first lesson! Just to summarize what you learned:

• BreadSpeak words consist of consonant-vowel pairs.
• The BreadSpeak writing system assigns one character to each syllable.
• The first syllable of a multi-syllable word categorizes the meaning of the word.
• You can derive the antonym of a multi-syllable word by changing the first vowel.

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