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In my previous message, I posted a revised scheme for handling
spellings. I just realized that it's flawed. Specifically, upper case
'U' and upper case 'T' had the same representation.
So, here's a scheme that should work:
All spellings use the special classifier "-nxo".
Consonants are CV, where V is either 'o' or 'u', whichever is
NOT reserved for prefixes and classifiers:
b = Ka-bu-nxo
d = Ka-do-nxo
h = Ka-ho-nxo
l = Ka-lu-nxo
q = Ka-qo-nxo
r = Ka-ro-nxo
t = Ka-tu-nxo
etc.
An upper case consonant is preceded by "bi" (mnemonic: "binsa"=
'big/large'):
B = Ka-bibu-nxo
H = Ka-biho-nxo
T = Ka-bitu-nxo
etc.
All vowels are "P" for lower case and "biP" for upper case, where P
is the basic polarity prefix that contains the desired vowel:
a = Ka-dwa-nxo
e = Ka-xe-nxo
i = Ka-vi-nxo
o = Ka-fo-nxo
u = Ka-su-nxo
...
E = Ka-bixe-nxo
U = Ka-bisu-nxo
Semi-vowels use "ba-" for lower case and "bi-" for upper case, plus
"-Sa":
w = Ka-bawa-nxo
W = Ka-biwa-nxo
y = Ka-baya-nxo
Y = Ka-biya-nxo or Ka-bya-nxo
Accented letters use a special C(S)V AFTER the letter:
acute accent = pa
grave accent = me
umlaut = zo
circumflex = ca
tilde = fe
etc.
� = Ka-dwapa-nxo
� = Ka-nufe-nxo
� = Ka-suzo-nxo
� = Ka-bisuzo-nxo
etc.
Punctuation will also have dedicated C(S)Vs:
period = Ka-de-nxo (mnemonic: numeric "-de-" = decimal point)
hyphen = Ka-na-nxo (mnemonic: numeric "na-"= minus sign)
question mark = Ka-ki-nxo (mnemonic: prefix "ki-"= interrogative)
etc.
Here's an example of a complete word:
Nango? = Ka-binu-dwa-nu-gu-fo-ki-nxo
N a n g o ?
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-nxo 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-dwa-nxo xxx", where "xxx" is the Katanda adjective meaning
'Hiragana'. (Obviously, the modifying adjective "xxx" will not be
needed if the context makes it unnecessary.)
Chinese characters will be based on their Unicode descriptions, as
follows (TBD).
Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Rick Morneau
http://www.srv.net/~ram
http://www.eskimo.com/~ram