Sabax-golr has a variety of vowel sounds and a relatively limited number of consonants, most of them voiced/unvoiced pairs, written in an alphabet of 43 letters. Letters are combined (C)-(‘y’)-V-(C) to build syllable clusters, discrete units with a minimum of elision, with different letters for the same sound to indicate whether a consonant is leading or trailing the cluster, and whether a vowel is leading or infixed.
* D and T come from the dental not the alveolar. Try saying “ta” and “da” with your tongue pressed against the back of your teeth, rather than the ridge behind them.
* The L/R sound is not trilled, but a velar-alveolar glide, like L and R at the same time. Try positioning the tip of your tongue for L, and then lifting the back of it to the roof of your mouth at the same time.
* The F/H sound is not a labiodental fricative like the English F, but highly aspirated like the FU/HU sound in Japanese. Try pursing your lips and making an F sound without biting your lower lip.
* Y only appears infixed after a consonant. Compare the clear K sound of “coma” with the KY sound of “case.”
ROMANIZATION
Unfortunately, this system proves difficult to render in the Roman alphabet, particularly the vowels, and there is no standard system of transliteration. Early attempts to express Appighotian words, mostly people and place names, were ad hoc, spelled however it was likely to suggest the correct pronunciation to Sedekevran readers. Thus certain names have entered the lexicon with irregular spellings: Cybelis, Appighota, Ippidoci. In the new, more methodical system, they would now be spelled Saibĕlĕs, Ăpĭgōdŭ, and Ĭpĭdōchī.
To express vowel sounds without using accent marks, it is generally accepted to write short vowels with a, e, i, o, u; and long vowels as ii, ou, and oo. Diphthongs are written as is standard, ai, ei, oi. The other option is using Ŭ, Ŏ, Ĭ, Ă, Ĕ for short vowels and Ō, Ī, Ū for long vowels, which is considerably easier to do in handwritten text than in typing.
The Sabax-golr L/R sound is usually written within a word as L, and at the end of a word as LR to remind the reader of the correct pronunciation. (Ex: Saibĕlĕs, Tĕlănŏlr) Choice of f/h and m/n is left to the discretion of the writer, since both of those change depending on what sounds surround them.
Sometimes it is unclear whether a consonant is leading or trailing a syllable cluster. For example “mōnŏx” (story) could be either mō-nŏx or mōn-ŏx. Since leading consonants are more common than trailing consonants and syllables don’t often begin with vowels, the default reading for that is the first one, mō-nŏx. For words that do use a trailing consonant followed by a leading vowel (most commonly in verbs in past tense), a dash is often inserted to clarify that. Alternatively, sometimes “camel caps” can be used to express syllable breaks (MōNŏx vs. MōnŎx), which gets the job done but is generally agreed to be somewhat unsightly.
HISTORY
The Sabax-golr writing system was designed by an Appighotian bureaucrat in the 8th century, long after writing had already been established in other parts of the world. It draws inspiration from both the alphabet of Sedekevran and the syllabary of Nagessan, but has been customized to make it extremely suited for representing spoken Sabax-golr.
Its inventor, a man by the name of Saisĕkŏlr sī Ōjŭs, was said to have been a linguistic prodigy in his day, fluent in Nagessan, Sedekevran, and Watertree. Saisĕkŏlr was born to middle-class parents in Appighota and brought to the palace at a young age to work as a translator and interpreter in the administration of Tĕlănŏlr sī Ăpăn, who was then heir apparent to the Appighotian crown. When Tĕlănŏlr was defeated in combat and succeeded by his sister Saibĕlĕs, Saisĕkŏlr refused to transfer his allegiance to the new heir, remaining loyal until Tĕlănŏlr committed suicide in 715.
~~~~~~~~