Warlpiri Language - Alphabet

Alphabet

Since the 1950s, Warlpiri has been written in Latin script using an alphabet originally devised by Lothar Jagst and subsequently modified slightly. The Warlpiri alphabet uses only ordinary letters, with no accent marks. It is close to IPA, deviating in the following ways:

  1. Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel letter: ii, aa, uu.
  2. Retroflex consonants are written with digraphs formed by prefixing r to the usual alveolar symbol: rt, rn, rl.
  3. The palatal stop is written j.
  4. Other palatals are written with digraphs formed by suffixing y to the usual alveolar symbol: ny, ly. The palatal approximant is written y.
  5. The velar nasal is written ng.
  6. The alveolar trill is written rr.
  7. The retroflex flap is written rd.
  8. The retroflex approximant is written r.

To these basic rules are added two adjustments to make the alphabet easier to use.

  1. The indicators y (for palatal) and r (for retroflex) are often dropped if redundant in consonant clusters that share articulation position. Examples: nyj is written nj, rnrt is written rnt.
  2. At the beginning of a word, the retroflex indicator r is omitted. This does not produce ambiguity, because no Warlpiri word begins with a plain alveolar consonant. Example: rtari "foot" is written tari.

Read more about this topic:  Warlpiri Language

Famous quotes containing the word alphabet:

    “I wonder, Mr. Bone man, what you’re thinking
    of your fury now, gone sour as a sinking whale,
    crawling up the alphabet on her own bones.”
    —Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    “Roger Thornhill: You’re police, aren’t you. Or is it FBI?
    Professor: FBI, CIA, O–I—we’re all in the same alphabet soup.”
    —Ernest Lehman (b.1920)

    “I believe the alphabet is no longer considered an essential piece of equipment for traveling through life. In my day it was the keystone to knowledge. You learned the alphabet as you learned to count to ten, as you learned “Now I lay me” and the Lord’s Prayer and your father’s and mother’s name and address and telephone number, all in case you were lost.”
    —Eudora Welty (b. 1909)