Dependency structure is a prepositional construction or a collocation.
That means, that this abstract term expands the term of collocation by involving prepositional into itself.
Accent integrity is a property of a dependency structure to unify elements of this structure with only one accent on the main word.
What does this definition say? If we have a collocation\index {collocation} or a prepositional construction and we want to pronounce it, we should pronounce dependent words without any accent and put an accent on the first word of the structure. Look at the examples.
Examples:
Pod něbom [`pod nebom] Under the sky
Surely, you should remember that this might be applied only for brief structures, most often with one dependent word (or a preposition) of one or two syllables. If we have a long dependent word or there are too many dependent words in the construction, we pronounce them with a proper accent on each of the structure elements.
Examples:
Pod sïnïm něbom [pəd `sinim `nebom] Under the blue sky
Orthography
Alphabet of Novoslovnica
Alphabet
Lets summarize what we have known about Novoslovnica phonology. Afterwards we will get the list of phonemes and allophones and their connections with Novoslovnica letters in the alphabet.
We have learned that Novoslovnica has 51 consonant sounds and 22 vowels. 13 consonants and 4 vowels are allophones among them. Hence, the amount of phonemes is (5113) + (22 4) = 56 phonemes.
You should know that in Novoslovnica, soft and hard consonants do not differ in writing. That is because of the fact that by the combination of «consonant + vowel» we can always determinedly get what the consonant is like hard or soft. With this information, the amount of letters needed is reduced to 49.10
Nevertheless, lets now look at the table with the alphabet list and see how Novoslovnica is written.
Alphabet of Novoslovnica
Note, that the Cyrillic letters Щ, Ψ, Ќ, Ї in earlier versions of Novoslovnica have been replaced by Шт (Št), Пс (Ps), Кс (Ks) and Ји (Jі).11
Pronunciation
Novoslovnica is a phonetic language, thats why Novoslovnica has an important rule, which you have to apply to speaking in Novoslovnica.
Rule n. 3: All words are pronounced as they are written.
This rule means that you cannot reduce sounds when speak in Novoslovnica. It is a very important thing because you can make mistakes if you speak improperly. There are some exceptions but they all will be mentioned in this guidebook.
When you pronounce a word you are not restricted to use only main sounds if its more comfortable, you can pronounce allophones with the same level of softness and sonority with the main sound of the letter. Lets look at the examples below to understand what we can choose in speaking and what we cannot.
Examples:
okolo [o`kolo] around
čujstvo [`t̠ʃujstvo] feeling
However, you are restricted in what consonant sounds to use from the allophone list. You can see the next rule which will help you to speak.
Rule n. 4: You cannot mess soft and hard consonants when you pronounce a word.
This prohibit you to make hard consonants when you need a soft one, or to use a soft one when you need a hard one. Here you can see a table, where it is shown which sound you must pronounce in different combinations of letters.
Soft and hard vowel-consonant pairs
Some features
I and Ï
Many people will surely be confused by these two letters. They will ask whether there is the rule when we need to write the first ot the second one. However, you should look up and remember that these both letters produce different sounds. And that is the point.
The first letter produces the soft sound «I» while the second one stands for the hard sound. But the question is, where are used such sounds? We cant list the rules for usage these letters in the root, because it is an etymological issue. However, we can list some prefixes and suffixes that contain either a soft or a hard letter.
Marks for writing «I»:
Prefixes
Iz
Suffixes
Nic
Nik
Itelj
I
Conjunction
I
Ili
Či
Li
Marks for writing «Ï»:
Prefixes
Nïz
Suffixes
Ïc (female animals)
Latin and Cyrillic
You can see in table 1.8 that Novoslovnica utilizes two alphabets- the Latin one and the Cyrillic one. They both are practically equal, but is there is a preferred alphabet for the language? The answer is «yes», Cyrillic is preferable.
The reasons of choosing such a script goes back in history. There were two scripts in the beginning of Slavic writing: the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts. They were created to cover all the sounds that existed in that era of Slavic languages. Glagolitic script practically has no borrowed letters from other writing systems- all letters are unique.
By this case in Cyrillic and Glagolitic scripts we can find the bijective mapping between sounds (phonemes) and letters. Latin script does not provide such orthography in any Slavic language which uses the Latin script.
For example:
«ch» for [x], while «c» is for [ts] and h is for [x]
«sz» for [ʂ], while «s» is for [s] and «z» is for [z]
Novoslovnica provides an artificial Latin script system, where the bijective mapping has almost been achieved. The Latin alphabet can seem strange or uncomfortable to native Slavs 12(though it can be used rather conveniently by non-Slavs). Thats why the Glagolitic or Cyrillic script should be used primarily.
Why hasnt the Glagolitic script been mentioned yet? The same reason that the Latin script should not be used primarily: to prevent misunderstanding. Nowadays only one in a hundred Slavs can understand the Glagolitic script because all of its letters are original. Thats why this language, which has the goal of being used on the international level, cannot use Glagolitic script as its primary script.
The only script, that satisfies all the requirements to be the primary script of this Slavic constructed language, is the Cyrillic alphabet. In this book you will find many examples in different paragraphs. First you will see a primary (Cyrillic) variant of the example in normal font and then a Latin one in grey italic font. This will help you to learn primary script of Novoslovnica quickly. Nevertheless, if we speak about exact letters or letter combinations, I will write them only in Latin for not to mess the text of the book.