Solresol: A Synopsis
Introductory Notes
Phonology
Lexical System
Syllabic Reversal
Grammar
Word Order
Derivational Systems
Gender and Number
Parts of Speech
A note about the derivational systems
Verbs
In some cases there are conflicting reports on how Solresol works,
especially when comparing Gajewski to Couturat and Leau. I have
generally given Gajewski priority on the grounds that he was Secretary
General of the Solresol society in Paris, while Couturat and Leau were
outsiders who were openly disdainful of the project.
Solresol has only seven "segmental
phonemes": do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si. [It may
seem silly to call them phonemes, but from a proper functional
standpoint, they are.] Accent, consonant length, and (perhaps) vowel
length are also phonemic.
Words are generated according to two principles: a priori schemas and
syllabic reversal. The schemas are based on the number of syllables,
the presence or absence of repeated notes, and the first syllable of
the word. Monosyllables and bisyllables don't fit the schemas
adopted for longer words; they are reserved mostly for high-frequency
words and phrases. Syllabic reversal is also seldom applied.
Repeated notes are consecutive: rsoff (hammer) contains
repeated notes; lflf (liter) does not. The following
table summarizes the schemas:
| Single Notes | Repeated Notes |
| DO | Man, faculties, good qualities, food | Religion |
| RE | Clothing, household, family | Construction, trades |
| MI | Human actions, bad qualities | Adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions |
| FA | Country, agriculture, war, sea, travel | Sickness, medicine |
| SOL | Arts, sciences | Sickness, medicine |
| LA | Industry, commerce | Industry, commerce |
| SI | Society (gov't, finance, police) | Legal matters |
The principle of syllabic
reversal frequently disrupts these schemas. Syllabic reversal involves
reversing the order of syllables to create an antonym, as fsms
(advance) and smsf (retreat). Such reversals
create forms whose meaning is determined by the original word rather
than by their first syllable; fsms is presumably a military
term, but its antonym smsf should concern society. (Come to
think of it, maybe it does ;) This is quickly dealt with. The basic
orders are Subject-Verb-Object and Noun-Adjective. (Determiners
precede their head, however, as do numbers.) The subject pronoun and
verb are inverted in questions. Non-pronominal subjects probably are
changed to topics and repeated as pronominal subjects, as in French:
L rsmr sdf. The brother begins. L rsmr, sdf-df?
The brother, begins-he?
Solresol has two genders: feminine and non-feminine. The non-feminine
is unmarked; the feminine is marked by modifying the final vowel in
some fashion. Gajewski calls this modification renforcement,
which may mean simply stressing it; however, he indicates it in a
couple of places by doubling the vowel. Whether this is actual
repetition or merely lengthening is open to question; I would lean
toward lengthening (by analogy with the plural), but Couturat and Leau
(35) say that the vowel is repeated. In any event, the written form
has a macron over the vowel, if the syllables are written out, or over
the abbreviation, if the shorthand is used:
| | sisol/sso | | sisool/sso¯ |
| | mister | | missus/Mrs. |
| | sila/sl | | silaa/sl¯ |
| | master, young man | | miss |
The plural is indicated by doubling (lengthening) the first consonant
of the final syllable; this is marked in writing with an acute accent
or apostrophe after the letter. The plural sign precedes the mark of
the feminine--presumably because the plural affects the consonant,
while the feminine affects the following vowel. Thus, sso/sisol
mister, ss'o/sis'ol messers; but
sso¯/siso¯l Mrs.,
ss'o¯/sis'o¯l mesdames.
Like Esperanto, Solresol forms various (not all) parts of speech from
a single base; unlike Esperanto, this base is always the verb, and the
change is made through accentuation. Thus, from the root rsoml
continue, we derive (capitalizing the accented letter)
| rsoml | continue (v) [no accent] |
| Rsoml | continuation (n [action/thing]) |
| rSOml | continuer (n [person]) |
| rsoMl | continual (adj) |
| rsomL | continually (adv) |
Note that rSOml is a noun referring to a person; Anton
Sherwood ([email protected]) quotes Drezen (Historio de la
Mondolingvo) as giving an adjectival meaning for this form. (Actually
he gives sRls (constituent, establisher) the meaning
konstituanta (konsistiga), though Drezen earlier says,
"Kiam iu vorto estis verbo, tiam la nomo de la objekto,
persono, adjektivo kaj adverbo, devenanta de tiu verbo,
formigxis per akcento sur la 1a, 2a, 3a kaj 4a silabo de la
vorto."--When a word was a verb, the names of the thing,
person, adjective and adverb were formed by [placing] the
accent on the first, second, third, and fourth syllable of the
word. [emphasis mine])
Gajewski implies that there is more to the
derivational system than mere stress, however; he advises speakers to
emphasize the consonants "as if there were two of them." This would
introduce a slight overlap between the adverb and the plural,
though.
Note also (as Drezen evidently did) that this derivational
system is used when the root is a verb. When the root is something
else, these derivations are not always made. This may resolve a
problem that perplexed Couturat and Leau (38) concerning
fsolso, which they say had the sequence vaisseau, navire,
brick, corvette, frégate (vessel, ship [smaller than
vaisseau], brig, corvette, frigate--all types of ship). Perhaps
Sudre used a different schema for this noun root. It seems more
probable, however, from the way that Solresol appears to work, that
the terms were given merely to demonstrate the semantic range of the
form, not as derivations.)
I can't help wondering how serious all
this is. Gajewski usually remembers to mark the plural and the
feminine (I have cleaned up a few omissions of this sort in the text),
but he only marks part of speech in that section of the book. None of
the example texts bear any sign of this derivational system. Moreover,
none of the various alternative representations of Solresol--manual,
stenographic, percussive, etc.--makes any allowance for these
features. All this leads me to suspect that these systems were more or
less optional, i.e., facultatifs: intended to support
understanding of a text or discourse, but perhaps not essential. This
would fit the attitude of spoken French (in the matter of gender and
number at least), which gives little concern to such matters. If Sudre
had meant to insist on these matters, he likely would have repeated
the signs of the feminine and plural (much as Esperanto repeats the
plural), not moved them away from the noun to its determiner.
If
this is so, Solresol is effectively much more analytical than even
many modern projects, being in the same league as Glosa and Loglan,
though with less function-marking than the latter. If the noun has
some kind of determiner at all times, only the verb is open to
question, and the particles would often clarify even them.
(On the
other hand, one might attribute the absence of the derivational
accents to a typical French dislike or disdain of word stress. I have
read--I do not know personally--that French Esperantists often annoy
others by ignoring the penultimate stress. Perhaps Gajewski merely
forgot about the accents--though it still seems odd that such a
thoroughly non-French feature as word stress could have anything but
an optional, auxiliary function.)
Verbs are invariant in Solresol; tense and mood are indicated by
separate particles: dd, rr, mm, ff, soso, ll, ss. The typical
shorthand for these involves capitalizing the single symbol (D, R,
M, F, SO, L, S). Without a particle, the verb defaults to
present indicative: dr sdf I begin.
D
Indicative imperfect and pluperfect, that is, an action that was
either in progress or already begun at some point in the past. [This
contradicts Couturat and Leau (36), who give the imperfect here and
the pluperfect under R.] dr D sdf I was beginning; I
had begun.
R
The indicative preterite
(simple past) and anterior past (marking an action that immediately
preceded some other past action). dr R sdf I began;
[when/as soon as] I had begun. After mr (that
[conj]), it indicates the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive. mr
dr R sdf that I might begin; that I might have begun.
M
Simple future and future perfect: dr M sdf
I will/shall begin; I will/shall have begun.
F
The conditional (present and past/perfect): dr
F sdf I would begin; I would have begun.
SO
Imperative. [Couturat and Leau agree with this,
but the data seem to favor what is technically called the
cohortive, a command restricted to the first person plural:
SO sdf Let's begin. The normal (second person)
imperative is the verb without a subject: frm dldm Be
accepted! (Sois accepté!); rml rdd lsorf ldld
Give [me] one meter of muslin. (Donnez un mètre de
mousseline.)]
L
The active participle (past
or present): L sdf beginning; having begun. [This may be
gerundive in function, as in Beginning now, there will be no more
grenade practice in the house! In this case the Esperanto
equivalent would be an -ante/-inte form.]
S
Passive participle: S sdf begun. [Usage as above; if
gerundive, Esperanto equivalent in -ite (and -ate?).] And now, a
quick English to Solresol summary:
| English | Solresol |
| Present indicative | Unmarked |
| Conditional; Perfect/past conditional | F |
| Future; Future perfect | M |
| Past (ongoing act) | D |
| Past (isolated/incipient act) | R |
| Past perfect | D |
| Past perfect (immediately prior act) | R |
| Imperative | Unmarked, subjectless |
| Imperative (Let's -) | SO |
| Active participle | L |
| Passive participle | S |
| Pluperfect subjunctive | mr...R |
| Imperfect subjunctive | mr...R |
The passive is formed by placing frm before the unconjugated verb. (Do not use the passive participle!)
The subjunctive is marked by placing mr before the phrase.
For those who may wonder, yes, the last syllable is si. As
the solfeggio developed in the seventeenth century, the original
hexachord sequence ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la changed, ut
becoming do, and a seventh note (si) being added. This
latter note was itself later renamed ti in some places, I think
mostly in the English-speaking world. It's a pity ti isn't used
everywhere; then sol could be abbreviated s, and
ti would be t.
Anyone interested in the whole story,
and in scale names for non-western musical systems, should check under
solfeggio and solmization in a good encyclopedia.
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Conlangs page.
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page.
Copyright © 1997, Stephen L. Rice
Last
update: Nov. 19, 1997
URL:
http://www2.polarnet.com/~srice/solresol/synopsis.htm