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Sambahsa Reference Document
 by O.Simon & R.Winter 
SAMBAHSA REFERENCE DOCUMENT
Pronounciation rules
Sambahsa uses the same letters as English; unless otherwise indicated, consider thatisolated letters are pronounced approximately as in English.
a
Like “a” in “car”
ae
Like the pronoun “I”
ai
Like “e” in “bed”, but longer 
au
Like “ow” in “how”
bbh
Like “b” in English
c
Like a “k”, but like “ts” before e, i or y.
ck
 Always like “k”. Counts as a doubleconsonant “k + k”
ch
Like “ch” in “church”, but like “k” before aconsonant (ex: “Christ”)
ddh
Like “d” in English
e
-
Like “é” in “café” when stressed, or asthe first letter of a word, or followed bya doubled consonant
-
Otherwise like “e” in “the”, and evenunpronounced at the very end of aword (ex: “rose”)
-
 An unstressed “e” followed by “s” or “t” at the end of a word isunpronounced, unless it serves todistinguish this “s” or “t” from theconsonant before it (ex. “roses”).However, unstressed “e” is alwayspronounced in “ques” & “quet”
eau
Like a long “o”, as in “bureau”
ee
Like stressed “e” + unstressed “e”
eu
Like “u” in “burn”, but a little longer.
g
Like “g” in “give”, but like “g” in “change”before e, i and “y”
gh
 Always like “g” in “give”
gn
Like “ny” in “canyon”
h
-
Before a vowel, as in English (ex:“hat”)
-
 After a vowel, it is unpronounced, butlengthens the vowel.
i
Like “i” in “bit”
ie
-
at the end of a word, like “ee” in“standee”
-
followed by a consonant, turns to “ye”.Ex: “ies” is pronounced like “yes” inEnglish.
 j
 Always like “si” in “vision”
kh
Like “ch” in Scottish “loch”
oe
Like “oy” in “oyster”
ou
Like “ou” in “you”
ph
 Always like “ph” in “philosophy”
qu
Like “k” before “e”,”i” and “y”; but like “kw”
© Dr. O.Simon
 
Sambahsa Reference Document
 by O.Simon & R.Winter 
before “a”, “o” and “u”
rh, rr 
Like a rolled “r” in Spanish or Italian
s
 As in English; however “s” between twovowels is pronounced like “z” (ex: “rose”)
sc
Like “sk”, but like “ss” before e, i or y. Ex:“science”
sch
Like “sh” in English
sh
This is the “ich-Laut” of German, a soundhalfway between “sh” and “h”
th
Like “th” in “thin”, but like a “t” when close toa sound of the family of “s”
u
Like “oo” in “moose”, but like French “u”or German “ü” if one of the two nextletters is “e”.
ue
Like a long French “u” or German “ü”
ui
Like “we” in English
uy
Like the English sounds “oo” + “y”
x
“ks” or “gz” following the phoneticenvironment
y
-
Before or after a vowel, like “y” inEnglish.
-
Between two consonants, like aFrench “u” or a German “ü”. However,“y” and “ys” at the end of a word arepronounced “i” as in “baby” or “Gladys”.
z
Is pronounced “dz”
Accentuation
In Sambahsa, to locate the stress, you must start from the last syllable and determine if it isaccentuable following the rules below.
Automatic Stress:
-
always stressed : a vowel followed by a doubled consonant, “-el” if one of the twoletters before it is “o” (ex: “hotel”), “-ey” and “-in”
-
never stressed : -ule, -ing, -(i)um
-
prefixes and the letter “w” are never stressed. Likewise, semi-vowels cannot bestressed.
Main rules :
-
a single vowel as the last letter of a word is never stressed; the stress goes on thenext vowel before (but never on a semi-vowel).
-
Diphthongs (see list above) are always stressed, like long vowels (vowel + “h”)
-
a, o, u followed by a consonant (except “s”) or a semi-vowel are stressed.
-
a final “s” has no influence on accentuation
Compounds :
Same rules as for simple words, except that only syllables that could have been stressed inthe separate elements can be stressed in the compound. The suffixes -ment and -went countas if they were separate words.
© Dr. O.Simon
 
Sambahsa Reference Document
 by O.Simon & R.Winter 
Plural
The simple form is the singular number. The plural number ends in
-s
. If that is phoneticallyincompatible with the preceding consonant (ex:
s
,
ch
,
 j 
), then
-i 
(for animate beings) or 
-a
willbe used. If all those forms do not match with the stress rules, no endings shall be used.
-um
of names of things turns to
-a
in the plural. The unstressed endings
-es
or 
-os
turn to
-si 
or 
-sa
. According to an optional rule, names of groups of animate beings ending with a letter which is phonetically incompatible with a final
s
(ex:
s
,
ch
,
 j 
) may have no ending for theplural number. Examples:
div 
(god) =
divsurx 
(bear) =
urx(i)
(as it is a collection of animate beings)
territorium
(territory) =
territoriadaumos
(wonder) =
daumsadeutsch
(German) =
deutsch(i)
(as it is a collection of persons).
 prince
(prince, son of a sovereign) =
 princes
The sole irregular plural in Sambahsa is for 
ok 
(eye), plural:
oks
or 
okwi 
(eyes)
DECLENSION
Sambahsa uses the same word for “the” and for the personal pronoun of the third person (1).However, the genitive applies only to “of the”, since the personal pronouns use possessivepronouns instead. Likewise, Sambahsa uses similar words for the relative and interrogativepronouns (4). And, finally, the demonstrative articles (2 & 3) can be listed within the sametable (see
R. Winter’s blog for an interesting analysis
):
 
Masculine Singular (Plural)
NominativeAccusativeDativeGenitive(1)
is (ies)iom (iens)ei (ibs)ios (iom)
(2)
cis (cies)ciom (ciens)cei (cibs)cios (ciom)
(3)
so (toy)tom (tens)tei (tibs)tos (tom)
(4)
qui, quis* (quoy)quom (quens)quei (quibs)quos (quom)
* qui = relative pronoun, quis = interrogative pronoun
Feminine Singular (Plural)
NominativeAccusativeDativeGenitive(1)
ia (ias)iam (ians)ay (iabs)ias (iam)
(2)
cia (cias)ciam (cians)ciay (ciabs)cias (ciam)
(3)
sa (tas)tam (tans)tay (tabs)tas (tam)
(4)
qua (quas)quam (quans)quay (quabs)quas (quam)Undetermined Singular (Plural)
NominativeAccusativeDativeGenitive(1)
el (i)el (i)al (im)al (im)
(2)
cel (ci)cel (ci)cial (cim)cial (cim)
(3)
tel (ti)tel (ti)tal (tim)tal (tim)
(4)
quel (qui)quel (qui)qual (quim)qual (quim)
© Dr. O.Simon
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