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Okay, here's what I've come up with for letter names. Design
constraints were as follows:
1. The letters of the alphabet are proper names, with classifier -bea.
2. Lowercase should be distinguishable from uppercase.
3. Proper names cannot begin with a consonant cluster.
4. "h" is forbidden in proper names, except as part of a consonant
cluster.
5. "yi" and "wu" are forbidden.
I wanted names that were brief but aurally distinct. I experimented
with names based on the aviation alphabet ("delta foxtrot tango",
etc.) but they were too long. So for consonants I selected from the
non-reserved syllable-shape list provided by Rick:
b, c, f, g, n, t, z, x, l followed by a, i, or u
p, j, v, k, m, d, s followed by e or o
I used "u" or "o" in lowercase consonant names, "i" or "e" for
uppercase. I didn't choose the non-reserved syllables because they
were non-reserved, but because they seemed to distinguish similar-
sounding letters pretty well.
For vowel names I wanted to be sure they didn't overlap with
consonant names. So I chose syllable pairs that featured "h":
sVnhu (lowercase)
sVnhi (uppercase)
For "h" itself, I just made up something that didn't conflict with
anything else.
Here is the list. I have separated the name prefix and the classifier
from the rest of the name for visual clarity only. The letter names
would not be spelled that way.
a = ka-sanhu-bea
b = ka-bu-bea
c = ka-cu-bea
d = ka-do-bea
e = ka-senhu-bea
f = ka-fu-bea
g = ka-gu-bea
h = ka-tanho-bea
i = ka-sinhu-bea
j = ka-jo-bea
k = ka-ko-bea
l = ka-lu-bea
m = ka-mo-bea
n = ka-nu-bea
o = ka-sonhu-bea
p = ka-po-bea
q = ka-qo-bea
r = ka-ro-bea
s = ka-so-bea
t = ka-tu-bea
u = ka-sunhu-bea
v = ka-vo-bea
w = ka-wo-bea
x = ka-xu-bea
y = ka-yo-bea
z = ka-zu-bea
A = ka-sanhi-bea
B = ka-bi-bea
C = ka-ci-bea
D = ka-de-bea
E = ka-senhi-bea
F = ka-fi-bea
G = ka-gi-bea
H = ka-tanhe-bea
I = ka-sinhi-bea
J = ka-je-bea
K = ka-ke-bea
L = ka-li-bea
M = ka-me-bea
N = ka-ni-bea
O = ka-sonhi-bea
P = ka-pe-bea
Q = ka-qe-bea
R = ka-re-bea
S = ka-se-bea
T = ka-ti-bea
U = ka-sunhi-bea
V = ka-ve-bea
W = ka-we-bea
X = ka-xi-bea
Y = ka-ye-bea
Z = ka-zi-bea
I suggest the following convention for spelling out letter strings:
Use the plural prefix "le", then the name prefix "ka", then the semi-
root (?) parts of the letter names all together, then finally the
classifier "bea".
Spelled out "Kalaribyo"
= "lekakesanhulusanhurosinhobuyosonhubea"
(I admit this seems a bit contrived; maybe we need a classifier or a
prefix to do this job.)
I'm not thrilled with the vowel names; on the other hand, how often
do we need to spell out words in a phonetic language?
I suppose we could also use "cuku/poku" pairs, but my understanding
is that those are for foreign names, and I'd like Katanda's own
alphabet not to be foreign. This brings up the issue of names for
glyphs that are not within Katanda's alphabet. For these either the
bracket notation or "cuku/poku" seem the best approach. (This reminds
me of a question: how are the angle brackets in something
like "Ka<Larry>byo" pronounced?)
---Kalaribyo