Spelling

Original script

Name

The word [nomumu nomumu /ˈnomumu/] in Lemu Teloku means roughly “order of letters” and refers to the alphabet in general. The particular font used here is called Abika Common. It is called after the word [ abika abika /ˈabika/n.formulaism].

Letters

Some letters have a slightly different shape after and before a space, but the differences are small.

Latinization and Cyrillization

Palatalized sonorants

In Lemu Teloku, “soft” (palatalized) consonants m, l, n can only occur before the sound /a/ or at the end of a word. Before /a/, they are written in Cyrillic as “мя”, “ля”, “ня” respectively. At the end of a word — in Cyrillic “мь”, “ль”, “нь”; in Latin — “m’”, “l’”, “n’” in any position.

The sound /j/

When /j/ occurs at the beginning of a word before a vowel, it is written in Cyrillic as “я”, “ю”, “е” depending on the vowel. At the end of a word or before a consonant — “й”.

The sound /e/

When /e/ is at the beginning of a word, it is written in Cyrillic as “э”, because in Lemu Teloku it is not iotated. In the middle of a word — as “е”.

Capitalization

In Latinization/Cyrillization, only proper nouns are capitalized, e.g. Апину/Apinu apinu /a’pinu/ (city), Штеня/Shtenya ctenja /‘ʃteɲa/ (name). All other words are written with a lowercase initial letter, even at the beginning of a sentence.

Abika font for Lemu Teloku

The Abika Common font (for the Lemu Teloku alphabet) used here is mapped to the Latin script. Most letters are typed as the corresponding Latin letters. Some specific sounds are represented by Latin letters that correspond to sounds absent in Lemu Teloku.

You can download the font (TTF).

Examples

Schleicher’s fable