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--- In txeqli@y..., Rex May - Baloo <rmay@m...> wrote:
>
> Before we go any further, let's vote on these phonologies:
[...]
> 2. Current idea:
>
> txu = chew
> xu = shoe
> meydjar = major
> meyjar = measure
[...]
This is my favorite at the moment. I like the analytical approach.
The missing <c> doesn't bother me any more than does the missing <v> in
Pinyin. My feeling is that the phonology should come before the
orthography. If there is no sound that requires <c>, why not just omit
it?
If the need to use the letter is overwhelming, then there are certainly
a lot of possibilities. I've read all the previous messages, and seen
[x], [q], [?] (glottal stop), and [@] (schwa). The first three are all
reasonable, but I don't like using it for a vowel. But those three
sounds are not all that common. I only know [q] in Arabic, and Arabic
is the only language I know that has [h] and [x] as a minimal pair.
Another possibility would be the palatalized nasal, [n^] (as in Spanish
<ñ> {n~}). It's certainly no odder than using <q> for [N], and wouldn't
violate any symmetry. It's also a fairly common sound, occurring also
in Indonesian/Malay (spelled <ny>), Vietnamese (spelled <nh>), and a
number of Chinese languages. Also in French and Italian, I believe
(spelled <gn>?).
It's worth noting, by the way, that many natural languages are not
symmetrical in their phoneme inventories. For example, Arabic has /b/,
but not /p/, and many dialects do not have /g/, though most (all?) have
/k/, /t/, and /d/.