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--- In katanda@y..., Rick Morneau <ram@s...> wrote: --snip-- > This means, though, that the rule for 'h' must be changed. > > So, I've modified the rules and the parser to allow 'h' in a proper > name. In other words, if "ka" appears, then 'h' is treated like any > other consonant. Here's the result: > > All vowels are 'h' plus V: > > a = Ka-ha-bea Hooray! My original thought was in fact "Kahabea" for "a", etc., until I found the "h" rule. --snip-- > > An upper case letter is preceded by "bi" (mnemonic: "binsa"= > 'big/large'): > > A = Ka-biha-bea > E = Ka-bihe-bea > etc. Can I suggest something? It seems to me that, more often than not, when letters are used in acronyms or in identification (like license plates), they are uppercase. Would it make sense for the uppercase letters to have the shorter names and lowercase the longer? And perhaps also to thereby establish that uppercase is in some sense the "default"? --snip-- > The letters 'h', 'w', and 'y' are somewhat irregular: > > h = Ka-naha-bea > H = Ka-niha-bea > w = Ka-bwa-bea > W = Ka-bibwa-bea > y = Ka-nya-bea > Y = Ka-binya-bea > Aren't "bwa" and "nya" potentially classifiers? And are they not consonant clusters, therefore prohibited from first position in a name (after the "ka" prefix)? > Accented letters use a special semi-morph AFTER the letter: --snip-- Nice! > Punctuation will use unallocated, unreserved CVs and CSVs: --snip-- Yes! > Complete words will use "le" as you suggested: > > Nango? = Ka-le-binu-ha-nu-gu-ho-ke-bea > N a n g o ? > > However, is "le" really needed? Do we really need to make a distinction > between individual letters and complete words? > Ummmm...ya know, I can't think of any good reason. > Non-Roman alphabets and syllabaries can use the closest equivalent of > the above with an appropriate modifier. For example, Greek "kappa" will > be "Ka-ko-bea xxx", where "xxx" is the Katanda adjective meaning > 'Greek'. Syllabic scripts, such as Japanese Hiragana and Katakana, can > use two or more semi-morphs. For example, Hiragana "ba" will be > "Ka-bu-ha-bea xxx", where "xxx" is the Katanda adjective meaning > 'Hiragana'. As we say around here, "Beauty, eh?" Hangeul is more alphabet than syllabary in my mind, but Koreans that I have talked to seem to consider it a syllabary that follows a logical pattern of syllable character construction. Which opinion would govern in this case? > Does anyone know how the Chinese and Japanese name the Chinese > characters? We'll need to do something for them also. It's not a simple question. We should check out a Unicode web page to see what descriptors are used there. Here's a starting point: http://www.hclrss.demon.co.uk/unicode/#links > Finally, would it be better to allocate a different classifier just for > spellings? Will your parser do something appropriate with the mechanism suggested above? If so, then I'd say no special classifier is needed. Thanks, Rick! ---Kalaribyo