Metelko alphabet
TheMetelko alphabet(Slovene:metelčica) was aSlovenewriting system developed byFranc Serafin Metelko.It was used by a small group of authors from 1825 to 1833 but it was never generally accepted.
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Metelko introduced his alphabet in the bookLehrgebäude der slowenischen Sprache im Königreiche Illyrien und in den benachbarten Provinzen(Textbook of the Slovene Language of theKingdom of Illyriaand Neighboring Provinces, 1825). He invented his alphabet to replace theBohorič alphabet(Slovene:bohoričica), which was considered problematic in certain situations. Metelko was influenced by the ideas ofJernej Kopitar,a well-known linguist who also participated in the development of the modernSerbian alphabet(created byVuk Karadžić,following Kopitar's ideas).
Metelko's alphabet has 32 letters in the following order:
A B D E
F G H
I Ƨ J K L
M N
O
P R S
З
T U V
Ч
Special letters are explained in the following table (other letters have the same meaning as in modern Slovene):
| Upper case | Lower case | IPA | Modern Slovene |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
ƞ | /ts/ | c |
| Ч | ɥ | /tʃ/ | č |
| S | s | /s/ | s |
|
|
|
/ʃ/ | š |
|
|
|
/ʃtʃ/ | šč |
|
|
/z/ | z |
|
|
|
/ʒ/ | ž |
| H | h | /h/ | h |
|
|
|
/x/ | h |
|
|
|
/lj/ | lj |
|
|
|
/nj/ | nj |
| E | e | /ɛ/ | e(ê) |
|
|
|
/e/ | e(é) |
| Ƨ | ƨ | /ə/ | e(ə) |
| O | o | /o/ | o(ó) |
|
|
|
/ɔ/ | o(ô) |
Metelko wanted to solve the problem of the formerly useddigraphsZH (for/tʃ/) and SH (for/ʃ/and/ʒ/) by replacing them with the special lettersЧ,,and,based on theCyrillicletters Ч, Ш, Ж.
Metelko also added special letters for some common clusters:,,and.
The difference between glottal and velar H (/h/,/x/) is in fact not relevant to Slovene phonology, and therefore the letterwas omitted by some authors.
In the Bohorič alphabet, certain words with different pronunciations had the same spelling. Metelko wanted to solve this problem by splittingEinto three variants andOinto two variants. Metelko's lettersE,,andƧrepresent the vowels/ɛ/,/e/,and/ə/,which were formerly written withE.Metelko's lettersOandrepresent the vowels/o/and/ɔ/,which were formerly written withO.
The main problem of Metelko's alphabet was its graphic design. Metelko's letters appeared strange to the average Slovene writer and the alphabet itself was soon nicknamedkrevljica'the twisted alphabet'. Some letters were in fact difficult to write by hand. In addition to Metelko being strongly influenced by his own dialect, certain solutions were not accepted by speakers of other dialects. Soon strong opposition arose against Metelko's alphabet.
After the "Slovene alphabet war" Metelko's alphabet was forbidden in 1833. A few years later Slovenes acceptedGaj's Latin alphabet(Slovene:gajica), which is easier to write. In this alphabet, the variousmid vowelsare written using diacritics (é,ê,è,ó,ô,ò), but only in cases when it is necessary to distinguish two words (e.g.klóp'bench' vs.klôp'tick').
TheIETF language tagshave assigned the variantsl-metelkoto Slovene in the Metelko alphabet.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"IETF language subtag registry".IANA. 2021-08-06.Retrieved10 September2021.
Sources
[edit]- Toporišič, Jože. 1993. "Metelčica."Enciklopedija Slovenije,vol. 7, pp. 103–104. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga.
External links
[edit]