These lessons will likely leave a lot to be desired, but I will eventually, after time, release a more polished PDF based off of these. So please excuse how direct these lessons may be.

Pronounciation

Pronouncing Àrdu is generally pretty easy. There are some sounds not found in English, but these should be quite easily learned. First, let’s start with the vowels.

A as in father.

E as an in between of the ‘e’ in them and the ‘ey’ in they.

I as the ‘ee’ in sheep.

O as in hope.

U as the ‘oo’ in hoop.

You will also see an ‘h’ after e, i, and u. These sounds are as follows:

EH as the ‘e’ in them. Short, direct sound.

IH as the ‘i’ in hit.

UH as the ‘u’ in put.

Another vowel sound worth mentioning is ‘eu’.

EU is similar to UH, but it is a slightly longer sound that is made a bit differently. Take for example the Àrdu word ‘heut’ meaning house. If I were to try to approximate its spelling according to English phonetics, it might look like “hwut”. The ‘w’ would not be fully pronounced, and when starting the ‘eu’ sound the lips move only slightly as if they were to make the ‘w’ sound but then go into the ‘u’ sound. ‘Eu’ is a sound made deep in your throat.

Then, we have these vowel sounds:

Ai which sounds like the ‘y’ in the word sky.

Ei as in the ‘ey’ in they.

Ao as in the ‘ow’ in cow

Note: when you see two vowels in a row, such as ‘àa’ or ‘aà’ they should both be pronounced. In the example ‘àa’ the stress falls on the first ‘a’. In the second, it falls on the second ‘a’. Now, for the consonants.

B as in english

D as in english

F as in english

G as in ‘go’

GH as in the french R. If you cant do this sound, practice it. You make a w sound but in the back of your throat.

H as in ‘human’, a slight hiss sound

J as in the ‘s’ in measure

Dj as in the ‘j’ in just

K as in English

Kh is similar to H but more pronounced, with a heavier tone. It is a gutteral, similar to the german CH and can be made by imitating a cats hiss while saying the k sound. Or, in other words, it’s a k sound with a lot of air around it.

L as in english

M as in english

N as in english

P as in english

R can be pronounced in any manner of accents, aside from the french R which could alter the meaning of a word.

S as in sit, never z.

Sh as in ship.

T as in english.

Tsh as in the ch in chip.

V as in english

W as in english

Y as in yes, never a vowel

Z as in zebra.

À nóte aboút àccent màrks

These accent marks don’t change the sound of a vowel, the only serve to show where the stress or accent of the word should be.To show an example in english: Rècord : a big disk from a long long time ago put into a record player like a CD. Recórd: to save the hit song you made by playing into a microphone so that you can become world famous. See how the stress or accent changes the meaning?

Now to the main course

I will just give you the personal pronouns, one verb and an adjective for now. Use them to practice your pronounciation and also to form the foundation of your vocabulary!

Personal pronouns

Èwa – I

Te – you

Ze – he, she

I- it

Èwahin – we

Tèhin – y’all, you all

Zèhin – they (animate)

Íhin – they (inanimate)

The verb -to be- in the present

Sha – is, am, are

That One Adjective I Told You About

Kàba – good

With these, you can build some basic sentences. Àrdu has certain rules about word order:

The subject always goes before its verb

The objects always come directly after the verb

Describing words always come directly before the word they describe

For example:

Èwa sha Àya – I am Aya.

I am Aya. Te shà kàba. – you are good.

you are good. Èwahin sha kàba. We are good.

Making a question is merely matter of using rising intonation:

Te sha kàba? Are you good?

Ready for some excersizes? Ok, droo and give me 20 pushups!

Did you do them? Oh well, that wouldnt have taught you àrdu anyway. So lets practice!

Translate to English:

1.èwa sha kàba

2. Ze sha kàba?

3. Èwahin sha kàba

4. Te sha kàba?

Translate to àrdu:

1. Are we good?

2. They (animate) are good

3. They (inanimate) are good

4. Are you guys (plural you, yall) good?

Click here for lesson 2