Sanakai & Hadohaij Reference

(phoneme and glyph reference)

ro=pensam =alda=gi=ro=da==ir =aw

“In Balance, Brilliance”

The Tubatonona Writing System

The Tubatonona call their alphabet hadohaij — the collection of written characters used in their language. Each individual character is a hadohaijkai. Each hadohaijkai represents a distinct sound, which we call a sanakai (unique sound). This reference documents all 28 sanakai used in Hadokai Tubatonona.

The hadohaij is organized into hadohatiij (syllable sets) — three distinct structural patterns used to write syllables. Every syllable occupies three positions:

• hadohatiSe — the first symbol position (opening consonant, shown in blue)
• hadohatiij — the syllable set structure itself (vowel area, shown in pink)
• hadohatinidok — the last symbol position (closing consonant, shown in green)

The three hadohatiij (syllable sets) are:

• hadohatiijSa — the shield-side (left-facing) syllable set, which holds the vowels a, e, ʌ
• hadohatiijka — the arms-side (right-facing) syllable set, which holds the vowels i, o, ɪ
• hadohatiijkaSa — the center syllable set, which holds the vowel u

Romanization Conventions

Hadokai Tubatonona romanization uses two modes: casual and strict.

Casual mode omits ungʌ (the voiceless consonant) from romanized text. When a syllable’s opening or closing consonant position carries no sound, it is simply left unmarked. For example, the word pronounced “da” is written da in casual mode, even though the syllabic structure includes ungʌ in the closing position.

Strict mode explicitly marks ungʌ with the equals sign (=). The same word is written da= in strict mode, showing the complete CVC structure. Strict mode is used when teaching the language, analyzing syllable structure, or preparing text for the HT font renderer.

Input Conventions

Some characters have special input conventions for ease of use:

• j = /dʒ/ sound (as in “judge” or “gel”)
• y = /j/ sound (as in “yes” or “yolk”)
• Uppercase I = /ɪ/ sound (as in “bit” or “kit”)
• Uppercase U = /ʌ/ sound (as in “cut” or “hut”)
• = (equals sign) = ungʌ (voiceless consonant, strict mode only)

These conventions make the romanization more intuitive for English speakers while maintaining phonological precision.

All entries below use strict mode notation to show the complete syllabic structure.

Phonotactics and Sounds

Phonotactics are the rules governing which sound combinations are permitted in a language. Hadokai Tubatonona enforces strict phonotactic constraints at the syllable level:

Within a syllable:

• Exactly one vowel — never more, never less.
• No consonant clusters — no two consonants may appear consecutively within a single syllable.
• No vowel clusters — no two vowels may appear consecutively within a single syllable.

Across syllable boundaries:

• Consecutive vowels are permitted — the syllable boundary separates them structurally (e.g., a.ɛ, tu.i).
• Consecutive consonants are permitted — the syllable boundary separates them structurally (e.g., al.da, bak.na).

These constraints ensure that every syllable conforms to the CVC structure and that syllable boundaries remain clear and unambiguous in both written and spoken forms.

Valid examples:

• a.e — two syllables, vowels separated by boundary
• al.da — two syllables, consonants l and d separated by boundary
• bak.na — two syllables, consonants k and n separated by boundary

Invalid within a syllable:

• *ae — two vowels in one syllable (not permitted)
• *bka — two consonants in one syllable (not permitted)

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The Voiceless Consonant: ungʌ

The voiceless consonant, represented in keyboard input as the equals sign (=), occupies a unique position in Hadokai Tubatonona phonology and script. It is critical to understand that the = symbol is not a punctuation mark, mathematical operator, or placeholder in the English sense…

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Syllable Structure

When Hadokai Tubatonona is transcribed into English or other Earth-based languages, the unvoiced consonants (ungʌ) are typically ignored, just as silent placeholder consonants are ignored when transcribing Hangeul into Latin script. This creates four surface forms in casual romanization:

• V — both consonants silent (e.g., =a= becomes a)
• CV — trailing consonant silent (e.g., ba= becomes ba)
• VC — leading consonant silent (e.g., =ak becomes ak)
• CVC — both consonants voiced (e.g., bak remains bak)

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Stress

In spoken HT, stress may fall on any syllable within a word to indicate semantic focus or emphasis. Shifting stress can change the meaning or highlight different aspects of a compound word. For example, in the word joalca (joalcha, meaning the blue rock), stressing jo might emphasize the object itself, the rock, stressing al might emphasize the water-nature of the color, and stressing ca might emphasize the color quality.

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IPA vs Keyboard Transcription Convention

Key differences between the two systems:

Why this matters:

• If you see y in a keyboard transcription, it represents the /j/ sound (as in “yes”), not the /i/ vowel.
• If you see w in a keyboard transcription, it represents the /ʒ/ sound (as in “vision”), not the /w/ sound (as in “water”).
• Uppercase letters (I, U, S) represent distinct sounds and must be typed exactly as shown for the font to render correctly.