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"The Shadow" <grose12@hidden.email> wrote: > > While I've long admired the design principles at work in Ladekwa (and > Katanda, Nasendi, etc.), I've always thought all iterations make > really ugly-sounding tongue-twister words, and that the semivowels are > at the heart of it. (Maybe I should've spoken up about it before now.) > > Maybe it's just me, but the SV combinations seem much more > tongue-tripping in succession than the VS ones. (Though I'll admit > I'm no linguist.) > Obviously, I agree with you. > > I'm with Stevo... how about ending syllables in m, n, l, r, and maybe > even ng? It would open up a lot of new syllables without a > proliferation of diphthongs. > This is where I disagree. It will create many more new syllables, but many of the results will be unpronounceable when a suffix is be added. For example, "betal" + "mbu" becomes "betalmbu", which is hard to pronounce. Also, 'm' and 'n' are reserved for suffixes and cannot be used in classifiers if self-segregation is to be maintained. You would also create the undesirable geminates "mm" and "nn". MorphemeAddict@hidden.email wrote: > > The more I think about Ladekwa's sound system, the more I like it just > the way it is, tongue-tripping and all. It's coherent, consistent, and > the individual sounds are easy to pronounce. It's my unfounded belief > that the difficulty in pronunciation will disappear as a matter of > getting used to it. > It is simple and consistent (not a brag, just a fact :-), but the ubiquitous semi-vowels can create many tongue-twisters, and something should be done about them if possible. I will post two possible solutions in a separate message as soon as I get the time. I'd like to get your opinions. Regards, Rick Morneau http://www.eskimo.com/~ram