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> I'm kidding around with the thought of adding considerably more sounds to > Ceqli by using the Spanish alphabet. Give me your reactions on this: > > Ten vowels: > > a as in fAt > á as in fAther (accented vowels can also be represented as double vowels > in ASCII "aa" in this case) > e as in bUg > é as in bEd > i as in bIt > í as in bEEt > o as in bOUGHt > ó as in bOAt > u as in fOOt > ú as in fOOd And what's the accent supposed to represent there? I mean, according to what I've been taught about the English vowels and checked with most English-speakers, the accent would be representing there a difference in length, openness and tenseness only in the case of "i" and "u" (i /I/ - í /i:/, u /U/ - ú /u:/), while in the case of "a" it would involve also an opposition of front/back (a /ae/ - á /A:/) and the oppositions between e/é and o/ó would have nothing to do with neither of the former: e/é would represent the opposition: schwa /@/ vs. short E /e/, and o/ó the opposition: long open O /O:/ vs. diphthong from schwa to short open U /@U/. Does that make any sense? > When adjacent to another vowel, "i" makes the Y sound /j/, and "u" makes the > W sound /w/. Do you mean that there would be no graphic distinction between full vowels i and u and their glides? > Consonants: > > b as in Boy > c as in SHoe (sorry!) > d as in Dog > f as in Free > g as in Go > h as in Hat > j as in Joe > k as in King > p as in Pig > q as in CHew > s as in See > t as in Too > v as in Victory > z as in Zoo > x as in meaSure Well, at last my proposal has been considered. > w as in THin > y as in THen Aaarghhh...!!! Wouldn't it be MUCH BETTER just to introduce the letters eth and thorn? > Weaks: > > l as in Love > r as in Rose > m as in My > n as in No > ñ as in haNG (may also be represented as "nn") Aaarghhh...!!! again. To me, Spanish letter eñe represents and will always represent the PALATAL nasal, not the eng. Why not just introducing letter eng instead of letter eñe? > That brings it up to 32 sounds, 34 if you count the semivowel values of 'i' > and 'u'. And it seems to me that, interestingly, it's adequate to > transcribe any and all English words, tho I know English is officially > supposed to have 43 phonemes, right? Yes, but that's because e.g. you treat some of English diphthongs as single phonemes ("ó" for bOAt), as they actually are, while others as combinations of phonemes ("ai" for rIGHt). And, on the other hand, Ceqli (or Txeqli or Qeñli, I'm not sure), would thus have little problem representing the sounds of English. O.K. But isn't Ceqli supposed to be a merging of English AND CHINESE? What about all those sound oppositions (b/p, q/ch/, sh/r...) that are essential for transcribing adequately any and all Chinese words? Best regards, Javier