A crosspost about Rap Lin Rie/Speedwords

Over the past few days I have had several requests in private email
for some more explanation about Speedwords. So, I hope this crosspost
will be of help to those interested.

If you have no interest in this constructed language, then you
should/could skip on to your next letter.

I thought it would help to quote the intros to the Companion to
Speedwords and the Supplement to Speedwords.

"How to Use This Companion

This Companion is for use with the Speedwords Text-Book. It contains
answers to the exercises set in the text-book, forty-eight additional
exercises with answers, also pronjunciation rules and
examples.........

Special attention is given in this companion to the pronunciation of
Speedwords. Even though a student's main interest may be in written
Speedwords it is important that he should think in terms of the
standard pronunciation. It is therefore advisable for all students to
practise speaking Speedwords as well as writing them and to do so
from the outset......

The summarised rules on pages 23 and 24 should be carefully studied
in conjunction with those paragraphs in the text-book which deal with
pronunciation: the text-book index enables them to be found quickly.

It should be remembered that the pronunciation rules are for
reference and are not intended to be learned "parrot" fashion....

Once isolated Speedwords can be spoken correctly and quickly, the
next stage is to combine them into spoken sentences. The ideal method
of doing this is by conversation with another Speedword student...."

"Supplement to the Dutton World Speedwords

This Supplement contains all the Speedwords parent-words or radicals
which, because of their lower frequencies, did not qualify for
inclusion in the original World speedwords Text-book of twelve
lessons.

In addition, exercises are given on 212 derivatives which come next
in order of frequency after those listed in the Text-book. At the
same time readers are reminded that many common derivatives can be
expressed automatically. For example, 'persons' are derived by the
suffixing of -r -- sper--speaker, vyr--adviser, etc. contraries are
also frequently obvious as belo--ugly, sono--silence, etc.
'Possibles' are expressed in English by the endings '-able' or
'-ible', and are readily formed in Speedwords by the suffix -b, as
vub-- visible, fesb--enjoyable, etc. Negatives, of course, are
expressed by the -n suffix, as ibun--improbable,
ikun--unsatisfactory, etc. The ability of the student to devise such
automatic derivatives will, of course, increase with practice....."

"High-Frequency Derivatives and Idea-Compounds

The opportunity is now taken to present exercises on derivatives and
idea-compounds [it is in this area I have gotten the most questions
recently.] which are next in order of frequency to those presented in
the Dutton World Speedwords text-book. In Lists 21-28 a full point
(.) is inserted between the parent-words which make up an
idea-compound, _in order to assist the student to recognise its
structure AT FIRST SIGHT._ (The full point must not, of course, be
used in practice. _Where no full point is listed the new Speedword
will be a single parent-word plus a single-letter suffix._.......

USAGE

1.....4. 'Jusl' denotes the noun 'right' in the sense of 'a right
asserted or claimed'. Other mote (speedwords) for the variations in
meaning of this English word which is so confusing to other nationals
are 'ga' (= right) as in 'drive right through the town'; 'ok' as in
'the answer is right'; 'dek' 'my right hand'; 'jus' 'to do what is
right'; and 'rek' 'right ahead'. It will be appreciated from these
illustrations how much more precise in meaning is Speedwords than a
national language which abounds in synonyms. This in spite of the
fact that Speedwords is constructed from only 493 radicals."

Hope this has been a help to those who asked, and of some interest to
those new to Speedwords/Rap Lin Rie.

Al l sue,
Bob, x+