Chapter 1: ALPHABET, SOUNDS, AND WORDS

1.1....ALPHABET: Goesk's roman alphabet has both upper and lower case letters, but lacks the letters "q" and "w." Spellings are pronounced consistently as indicated below. German words are used to illustrate non-English pronunciations or spellings.

1.2....THE CONSONANTS AND GLIDE: Goesk has the glide "j" but not "w."

a) The letter "y" before "r" or "l" signifies syllabification of the "r" or "l" sounds.

b) The sound spelled "n" as in "no" becomes the sound spelled "ng" as in "sing" before the "g" or "k" sounds.

1.3....VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS: Since some English vowels are really diphthongs, and since English lacks front rounded vowels, some of the vowels' values will be illustrated with German words that I looked up.

1.4....PHONOTACTICS:

a) Words may begin with the glide "j" or with any consonant other than "x."

b) Words may end with any consonant other than "h," and may not end with the glide "j."

c) Words may begin or end with syllabic sounds--vowels, diphthongs, "yl," and "yr."

d) Vowels and diphthongs do not occur consecutively within a word.

e) Syllabic consonants may be followed, but not preceded, by vowel sounds.

f) Syllabic consonants may be preceded or followed by just about any consonant or cluster, and not just the ones that may precede or follow non-syllabic "l" or "r." e.g.

g) The following sequences of liquids that contain syllabic liquids are permitted.

h) If word-formation produces a sequence of homorganic liquids, one syllabic and one non-syllabic, the non-syllabic liquid is dropped from the sequence. This is reflected in spelling. [Note the insertion of "z" in 1.4-5 and 1.4-6 and see rules c) and j).]

i) These clusters are permitted initially, medially, and finally.

j) These clusters are permitted medially.

k) These clusters are permitted initially and medially.

l) These clusters are permitted medially and finally.

m) /n/ becomes velar before /g/ or /k/, but /N/ is not an independent phoneme as it is in English. Always pronounce the hard "g" when saying Goesk words whose written forms include the digraph "ng."

n) The schwa vowel is inserted to break up unnacceptable clusters; the consonant "z" is inserted to break up unacceptable sequences of syllabic sounds.

o) When compounding creates a sequence of two identical sounds, they are written and pronounced as one sound. Goesk has no geminates or double consonant-letters.

1.5....WORD STRESS: Primary stress is on the first syllable of a root that follows a prefix. Secondary stress usually occurs on the third syllable after the primary, or the first syllable of the second stem in a compound word.

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