At this time, King Sotosoroto is the only person who can read/write/speak Narakian, but even His Majesty isn't fluent yet. Narakian has its own alphabet, but unfortunately the limitations of the internet force us to transliterate to the Roman alphabet. The Narakian alphabet actually is a syllabary, not an alphabet, but that is of little consequence to most of you.
For the other few, here is some information about Narakian. There are twenty-eight syllables, which are all combinations of the seven consonants and four vowels. The consonants are z (as in "azure"), k, n, r, s, t, and v. The vowels are a (as in "father"), e (as in "cliche"), i (as in "fajita"), and o (as in "Arizona"). Therefore, the syllables are za, ze, zi, zo, ka, ke, ki, ko, na, ne, ni, no, ra, re, ri, ro, sa, se, si, so, ta, te, ti, to, va, ve, vi, and vo.
I have a font of the alphabet available for both Macintosh and PC. On the keyboard, the letters are arranged in alphabetical order, with za at 1, ... va at 7, ze at q, ... zi at a, ... zo at z, ... and vo at m. Most puncuation works, too.
If an English syllable begins without a consonant, an r or an s fills the void. If the nearest consonant is a z, k, n, or s, it translates to an r. If the nearest consonant is an r, t, or v (or if there is no consonant in the word), it translates to an s.
The nearest consonant is either the next consonant in the English syllable or, if there is not a next consonant in the syllable, the last consonant in the previous syllable. If there is not a consonant in that syllable or a preceding consonant, then the nearest consonant would be the first of the following English syllable.
Examples: alude -> soroto; aquatic -> rakavatiki.
The sounds ah and ai translate to the sound ah (spelled a).
The sounds ay, ae, and eh translate to the sound ay (spelled e).
The sounds ee and ih translate to the sound ee (spelled i).
The sounds oh, oo, ow and oi translate to the sound oh (spelled o).
The sound uh (schwa) translates either to the sound a or o, depending on the nearest vowel. If the nearest vowel is an a or e, it translates to a. If the nearest vowel is an o or i, it translates to o.
The nearest vowel is either the previous vowel or, if there isnÍt a previous vowel, the next vowel. If all vowels in a word are schwas, then use o for all of them.
Consonant combinations are broken up as if there was a schwa between every consonant. If the word ends in a consonant, the preceding vowel is duplicated.
Examples: strength -> satarenasa; with -> vizi.
If, after following the above rules, the Narakian word has two identical syllables beside each other, the second consonant is changed to an r or an s. If the two consonants are z, k, n, or s, the second one becomes an r. If the two consonants are r, t, or v, the second one becomes an s.
Examples: name -> nere; weave -> visi.
Similarly: adjectives come before the noun they modify; adverbs come before the verb or adjective they modify; indirect objects come before direct objects; prepositions come after the phrase they modify, and hence are called postpositions; and auxiliary verbs come after the main verb.
For possession, the word sovo (of) comes after the owned object and before the owner. If the owner is a pronoun, it joins the word sovo as a suffix. Example: Our Kingdom -> Kinotono sovovi; Nathan's haircut -> serakata sovo Nesini.
Articles such as the and a do not exist in Narakian.
The conjugation of a verb depends on the subject of the sentence. If the agent is first person singular, then there is no suffix. If the agent is second person singular, then the suffix is -k*. If the agent is third person singular, then the suffix is -t*. The * is the same vowel as the last vowel in the infinitive. If the agent is first person plural, then the suffix is -C#. If the agent is second person plural, then the suffix is -C#k#. If the agent is third person plural, then the suffix is -C#t#. The C is the same consonant as the last one in the infinitive. The # is the opposite vowel of the last vowel in the infinitive. For a it would be e, for e it would be a, for o it would be i, and for i it would be o.
Examples: sa vi (I am), zo viki (you are), si viti (he is), vi vivo (we are), zi vivoko (y'all are), ze vivoto (they are); sa ko (I go), zo koro (you go), si koto (he goes), vi koki (we go), zi kokiri (y'all go), ze kokiti (they go); sa seve (I have), zo seveke (you have), si sevete (he has), vi seveva (we have), zi sevevaka (y'all have), ze sevevata (they have); sa ta (I tie), zo taka (you tie), si tasa (he ties), vi tate (we tie), zi tateke (y'all tie), ze tatese (they tie).
For past tenses, -soto or -sata is added: sa visoto (I was), zo korosoto (you went), si sevetesata (he had), vi sevevasata (we had).
For future tenses, -viri or -vere is added: sa visiri (I will be), zo koroviri (you will go), si sevetevere (he will have), vi sevevavere (we will have).
If the last vowel in the verb is a or e, -sata and -vere are used. If the last vowel in the verb is o or i, -soto and -viri are used.
What about _______?
If you can fill in the blank, email it to me.
If not, you can return to ronoveze sovo Naraka.