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On 1/22/06, Rex May <rmay@hidden.email> wrote: > > On Jan 21, 2006, at 7:06 PM, Jim Henry wrote: > > > On 1/21/06, Rex May <rmay@hidden.email> wrote: > >> > >> On Jan 20, 2006, at 5:34 PM, Jim Henry wrote: > >>> sur stol sta tri diwali hu bedan pori*. > >> We just had a big discussion about 'porridge' here at home, and we > >> decided that it's a generic word for that sort of thing made out of > >> oats or wheat or whatever. So I hunted up 'daliya' from Hindi, which > >> brings up a spelling question. Is there enough of a difference > >> between 'dalia' and 'daliya', phonetically? I think not, so the > >> word should either be 'dalia' or 'dalya'. So I opt for 'dalia', > >> three syllables, and the flower can be 'dalya'. > > > > Hm... I think "dalya" and "dalia" are too close as well, > > at least if you go with initial rather than penultimate > > stress. (Changing the stress rule won't really let > > you get away with more vowel/semivowel minimal pairs; > > it just shifts which potential word-pairs will and won't > > be distinct enough.) > > You're right. 'dalia' must be disallowed. I thought about 'dilaiya' > instead, but even that is too close to 'dalya'. So 'dalya' is > porridge, and we need a different word for dahlia. Do you have a consistent rule about names of animals and plants? E.g., are you trying to coin Tceqli names at the family, genus or species level? It might make sense to have a rule that Tceqli words for animals and plants come from their Latin (taxonomic) names if such names can be made to fit Tceqli phonotactics without becoming unrecognizable. In that case "dalia" or "dalya" would have to be "plants of genus Dahlia" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlia) and we need another word for "porridge" (which could probably cover oatmeal, grits, gruel and so forth as well). -- Jim Henry http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry