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on 4/15/02 2:07 PM, uaxuctum at uaxuctum@hidden.email wrote: >>> 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? >> Not really supposed to be, just sort of coincidentally turning out > that way. >> And the Chinese phonemes are just too different from the mainstream > to even >> try to deal with, really. > > What do you mean with "Chinese phonemes are just too > different from the mainstream to even deal with"? Do > you think English phonemes, especially English completely > idiosyncratic vowel system and the "th" sounds, are > anything close to "the mainstream"? I'm referring to the retroflex/nonretroflex distinction, which only Indic speakers wd be comfortable with, and (likewise ok for Indic speakers) the aspirated/unaspirated contrast instead of voicing. > > >> Now questions for you: How many vowels wd you feel comfortable > with, and >> what wd they be? > > The six of Lojban. A very clear, consistent and rich > vowel system, and even more if you turn the schwa > into a nasal schwa. And perfectly transcribable > using the standard ASCII roman alphabet. Nasal schwa? Interesting. How wd we transcribe it? -- >PLEASE NOTE MY NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: rmay@hidden.email > Rex F. May (Baloo) > Daily cartoon at: http://www.cnsnews.com/cartoon/baloo.asp > Buy my book at: http://www.kiva.net/~jonabook/gdummy.htm > Language site at: http://www.geocities.com/ceqli/Uploadexp.htm >Discuss my auxiliary language at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/txeqli/