JARRAPUA a COMMON-SPEECH
Echelon Prefixes
An echelon prefix is a vowel or dipthong placed at the front of a word to indicate what level, or echelon, of the modification hierarchy it is part of. The main Subject, Verb, and Object of a sentence are not modifiers of anything, so they will never have an echelon prefix. Let’s call those main words. Words that directly modify main words are of the first echelon, they are primary modifiers. When echelon prefixes are being used, primary modifiers are prefixed with the vowel “A”. Words that directly modify primary modifiers are of the second echelon, they are secondary modifiers. When echelon prefixes are being used, secondary modifiers are prefixed with the vowel “E”.
To illustrate, let’s use our example from above:
FURUA MAKE JEFI NAFMURUA RUNUE FURA PAFEA FERJURE FEJO
becomes
EFURUA AMAKE JEFI ENAFMURUA ARUNUE FURA EPAFEA AFERJURE FEJO
There can be up to nine echelons of modifiers in a sentence, using the vowels in alphabetical order followed by the dipthongs in alphabetical order.
A=primary modifier
E=secondary modifier
U=tertiary modifier
AE=fourth order modifier
AU=fifth order modifier
EA=sixth order modifier
EU=seventh order modifier
UA=eighth order modifier
UE=ninth order modifier
The rule on use of echelon prefixes is that in any one sentence you must either use the echelon prefix system for all words in that sentence, or you must not use the echelon prefix system in that sentence at all. If you need more than 10 echelons, you need to break the sentence up.