[YG Conlang Archives] > [ceqli group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
guildyank wrote: > > --- In txeqli@y..., Rex May - Baloo <rmay@m...> wrote: > > I'm beginning to wish the C controversy had never come up. Well, > I've > > learned a lot from it. I'm just about to revert to the 'C is for > Ceqli' > > version for the following reasons, exclusive of the problem of what > to do > > with C itself. > > > > A great many languages, including Mandarin, English, Hindustani, > German, > > Russian, Japanese, have /tS/ and /S/ as separate phonemes. None of > these > > languages have /dZ/ and /Z/ as separate phonemes. The only > languages I can > > dig up that do are Esperanto and (just barely) English. So the > symmetry of > > tx, x, dj, j is maybe more graphic than real. For one thing, I was > > considering the minimal pairs ji and dji, and I didn't want to use > them at > > all. didn't sound different enough. But tx and x seem just fine. > Is it > > just me, or is that a language universal, pretty much? > > It's just you. ;) 'dji' and 'ji' sound plenty different enough to me. > > Either assign separate glyphs to all of 'dj', 'j', 'tx', and 'x', or > only to 'j' and 'x'. Similarly, assign separate glyphs to all > of 'dz', 'z', 'ts', and 's', or only to 'z' and 's'. Balancing > symmetry with the arguments you've made recently leads us, IMO, to > separate glyphs for 'dj', 'j', 'tx', 'x', 'z' and 's', and > dropping 'dz' and 'ts'. > > dj ==> q? > j ==> j > tx ==> c > x ==> x > z ==> z > s ==> s > > If q must be engwa, and c must be included in the glyph set, then > drop separate glyphs for 'dj' and 'tx', and let 'k' be represented by > c if we want the Latin connection. Then what will 'k' be used for? > Also, I strongly recommend sticking to an unaccented, undigraphed > glyph set. I agree about "unaccented", at least. But if we could drop glides, we could have <y> available to produce: <dy> /dZ/ <ty> /tS/ Perhaps even: <sy> /S/ But then we'd have to decide what to do with <x>. Pfui! (That's a good Txeqli morpheme shape, isn't it?) But drop /Z/ as a phoneme, and /w/ and /y/ as glides, and we could have: <a> /a/ <b> /b/ <c> /tS/ <d> /d/ <e> /e/ <f> /f/ <g> /g/ <h> /h/ <i> /i/ <j> /dZ/ <k> /k/ <l> /l/ <m> /m/ <n> /n/ <o> /o/ <p> /p/ <q> /N/ <r> /r/ <s> /s/ <t> /t/ <u> /u/ <v> /v/ <w> /V/ fwq = Mand. <feng1>, "wind" <x> /S/ <y> /O/ kly = Eng. <claw> <z> /z/ Look, Ma, no digraphs. And two more fairly distinctive vowels. -- Mike Wright http://www.CoastalFog.net _______________________________________________________ "When they wired us humans up, they really should have labeled the wires--don't you think?" -- Ed