Curso 00
Lesson
0 - Zeresma Leciono
The Alphabet
Ido uses all the 26 letters found in the English alphabet.
There are no silent letters. Every letter must be pronounced. Each letter has
its own particular sound value which distinguishes it from all others.
There are no double letters, except where both are to be pronounced separately.
The Consonants
These have exactly the same pronounciation as in English:
b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, t, v, w, z, qu, sh.
The other consonants are as follows:
c - as 'ts' in bits, never as in English: ca (=tsa).
g - always as 'g' in get, never as 'g' in gin.
h - always sounded: honoro - honour.
j - as in French, i.e. like the 's' in pleasure.
r - rolled if possible, but in any case always pronounced, even in such words as portar [porr-TARR].
s - as 's' in soft, never a 'z' sound as in fuse.
x - as English x [ks, gz], except that the Ido x never has the 'z' sound found in English xylophone, but retains the 'ks' or 'gz' sound even at the beginning of words: xilofono [ksi-lo-FO-no].
y - this is a consonant as in yellow, and is never a vowel.
ch - as 'ch' in chat, never as 'ch' in machine.
The Vowels
These have approximately the following sounds (but see notes below):
a - as 'a' in father.
e - as 'e' in then.
i - as 'i' in machine, an 'ee' sound.
o - as 'o' in glory.
u - as 'u' in rude, an 'oo' sound.
Important Notes
1) There is room for a little variation in the length of the vowel sound, but it should not be too long or too short.
2) 'a'. Avoid making the 'ah' sound too long, so that it becomes 'aah' or even worse 'aahr'.
3) Never pronounce 'e' as in English 'meter'. Avoid adding a 'y' or 'ee' sound to the Ido 'e' so that it sounds like the 'ay' in English 'way'.
4) Avoid too much of an 'eey' sound to the Ido 'i'. Never pronounce 'i' as in the English word 'white', so be careful how you say such Ido words as 'mikra'.
5) Avoid adding an 'oo' or 'w' sound to the Ido 'o', as is the case with English 'no' which rhymes with 'know'.
6) Never pronounce 'u' as in the English words 'use' or 'universal', i.e. a 'yoo' sound instead of 'oo'. So be careful with words like 'uzata' and 'universala'.
7) Always say each vowel clearly. Never give a vowel the obscure 'uh' sound that is found in many English words, e.g. the 'a' in 'across', the 'e' in 'begin', or the 'o' and 'u' in 'button'.
Diphthongs
A diphthong is a vowel sound resulting from two vowel sounds combining.
In Ido there are two simple diphthongs:
au - a(ah) + u(oo) giving the 'ow' sound found in English 'now'. It is never pronounced as English 'au' in 'Paul'.
eu - e(eh) + u(oo). This is an 'eh-oo' sound which does not exist in standard English. 'eu' is never a 'yoo' sound as in English 'neutral'.
Note:
'u' before a vowel will tend to become like 'w', e.g. linguo [LIN-gwo].
'i' before a vowel will tend to bceome like 'y', e.g. pekunio [pe-KU-nyo].
All other vowels should be said separately: 'ai' is 'a-i' and 'ae' is 'a-e', etc, (not the English sounds remember).
Accentuation
All English words have at least one syllable which is stressed more than the others: but'ter, intel'ligent, e'lephant, begin'.
You will see from this that in English there is no obvious rule about where the stress occurs in a word. It could be in any syllable.
In Ido there is a simple rule with only one exception.
The stress always falls on the last syllable but one:
hun'do, ka'to, lin'guo, fami'lio [fa-MI-lyo], akade'mio [a-ka-DE-myo].
But the accentuation is on the last syllable in the case of verb infinitives (recognisable by their -ar, -or, -ir endings) for clarity in speech:
pozar', drinkar', drinkor', drinkir', donar', donor', donir'.
Examples:
amar', kredir', finor', ama'ta, kredi'ta, fino'ta, espere'ble, facin'da, jo'yo, boa'o, muze'o, hero'o, di'o, du'o, fo'lio [FO-lyo], li'lio [LI-lyo], men'tio [MEN-tyo], Ita'lia [i-TA-lya] a'quo [A-qwo], lin'guo [LIN-gwo], por'tuo [PORR-two], re'vuo [RE-vwo]
Pronunciation Exercise
Ka vu ja ler'nas la no'va lin'guo internacio'na?
ka vu ja LERR-nas la NO-va LIN-gwo in-terr-na-ci-O-na
kah voo zhah lairnahs lah nohvah leengwoh eentairnahtsiohnah
Me komen'cis studiar' ol an'te kel'ka di'i
me ko-MEN-cis stu-DYARR ol AN-te KEL-ka DI-i
meh kohmentsees stoodeeahr ohl ahnteh kelkah dee-ee
e me tro'vas ke ol es'as ve're tre faci'la
e me TRO-vas ke ol ES-as VE-re tre fa-CI-la
eh meh trohvahs keh ohl ehsahs vehreh treh fahtseelah
Om'na-di'e me lek'tas tex'to dum un ho'ro
OM-na-DI-e me LEK-tas TEX-to dum un HO-ro
omnah-dee-eh meh lektahs tekstoh doom oon hohro
me sem'pre lekt'tas lau'te
me SEM-pre LEK-tas LAW-te [LAw-te, never laU-te!, au being a diphthong.]
meh sempreh lektahs louteh
Ka vu kompre'nas to
ka vu kom-PRE-nas to
ka voo komprehnahs toh
The names of the letters in Ido-alphabet
The names of the letters in Ido-alphabet are:
a be ce [cho] de e fe/(ef) ge he/(hash) i je ke le/(el) me/(em) ne/(en) o pe que re/(ere) se/(es) [sho] te u ve/(ev) we xe/(exe) ye and ze
The (forms) are alternative and unauthorized names.
Some Europeans cannot distinguish between b/v, v/w, s/z and s/sh.
And the descendants of the Roman Empire do not pronounce 'h' very well. H is
a 'hush' sign for the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French etc.
In addition, the Japanese are deaf to the differences between b/v and l/r.
So it is convenient to use be/ev, ev/we, el/ere, es/ze, es/sho and hash.
Now let's begin (Never too old to learn and never too young to learn)
<<< Por ke ni povez balde parolar Ido, oportas ke ni tre ofte lektez laute.>>>
Please read aloud every Ido sentence in a lesson as many times as possible. And one lesson a day is quite enough for mastering this beautiful language.
Reading aloud as often as you can is the royal road to learning a new language, as proved by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-90).
<< Maxim bone on lernas linguo, se on lektas olu laute tam ofte kam posible.>>