The Alphabet
The ALPHABET comprises 26 letters: 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 21 consonants:
| Letter | Noun in Neo | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | that, add |
| b | be (bay) | best |
| c | ce (chay) | church (1) |
| d | de (day) | day |
| e | e (ay) | bed, day, Neo |
| f | ef | father |
| g | ge (gay) | gay, goal |
| h | he (hay) | heart, home |
| i | i (ee) | is, ear |
| j | je (jay) | jet, John |
| k | ke (kay) | keep, can |
| l | el | long |
| m | em | mother |
| Letter | Noun in Neo | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| n | en | no, none |
| o | o | lot, note |
| p | pe (pay) | poor, person |
| q | ku (koo) | queen, cook (2) |
| r | er (air) | red, room |
| s | es | sit, sister |
| t | te (tay) | tool, tea |
| u | u (oo) | tool, cook |
| v | ve (vay) | vain, void |
| w | we (way) | well, way |
| x | xe (ksay) | ax (3) |
| y | ye (yay) | yes, yet |
| z | ze (zay) | zoo, rose |
(1) For letter c pronunciation ts like tsar is acceptable.
(2) Letter q needs no following u to convey its kw sound, just as the sound of x is really ks. Rather thаn proper letters, q and x are convenient signs to replace respectively ku (or kw) and ks; both ku (or kw) and ks are available if preferred.
Letter q is always followed by a, e, i, or o.
(3) Never gz as example
Letter combinations sh and kh are pronounced same as in English.
PRONUNCIATION
Neo, like Spanish and Italian, is pronounced exactly as it is spelt. No letter is mute.
Every letter has one sound, always the same.
Therefore, if a text is dictated correctly, writing is simple and spelling mistakes are practically excluded.
VARIABILITY OF WORDS
An ending s is added to nouns and pronouns in the plural.
Verbs are conjugated according to the list.
All other words are invariable.
STRESS
STRESS falls on :
- the last but on syllable of words ending with a vowel: líbro book; táblo table; pátro father; mátro mother; álmo soul; korágo courage; korága courageous; kemío chemistry; serío series; geografío geography; geográfa geographical; distríbo distribution; distríbi to distribute; unálma unanimous; unalméso unanimity.
- the last syllable of words ending with a consonant: amór love; amík friend; gardén garden; kanón gun; aventúr adventure; experimént experiment; mi amár I love; vu venár you come; zi vidór they will see; vu venúr you would come.
The s of the plural does not displace the stress: líbros, táblos, mátros, seríos, amíkos, gardános, aventúros, experiméntos.
Letter y, being a consonant, cannot carry the stress: fólyo leaf; dólyo mourning, dólyi to mourn; sérye seriously (seríe means “in series”).
Before another vowel, i always gets stress, even in words that already have another stress: folío madness; míopío shortsightedness; bíologío biology.
Stress never falls on the vowel u in the combination guo: línguo language; ambígue ambiguously, or after a and e: pláudi to applause; káuzo cause; kláuzo clause; áuto motor-car; néutra neutral; réumo rheumatism; réuma rheumatic.
Compound words have two or more stresses, each component keeping its own stress: dórfoskól village school; ártístor Art-History; ísnón nineteen; nónek nónisnón 999; vírvéstdepartmént men’s-clothing-department.