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Re: [engelang] Re: Self-segmenting words & the treatment of names

Jorge Llamb�as, On 07/05/2006 18:04:

On 5/7/06, And Rosta <a.rosta@hidden.email> wrote:

In the current state of my language, Livagian, the shape of stems is
restricted only in that (i) every syllable bears level tone, (ii) the stem
cannot begin with /r/. So the process for Livagicizing a name is (a) throw
away any tone (which has the additional virtue of sparing the speaker
from having to work out how to map tone in the source language to tone
in Livagian), (b) add an epenthetic /y/ before any initial /r/, (c) add a final
(nonlevel-tone-bearing) inflection indicating that the stem comes from
the onomasticon instead of the ordinary lexicon.


How do you tell where the name begins?


All words' ends are identifiable, mostly by tonal means. In general, words consist of a stem plus an inflection; the start and end of the inflection is tonally marked.
For names beginning /yr/, you can't tell whether the /y/ is epenthetic or not (though if I thought that mattered, then I could have a particle before the name to mark the presence of a (non)epenthetic /y/). 
--And.