Re: CHAT: Introduction

From: "Jessica Husén" <husen_82@...>

> Well. I also got stuck on the phonology first. Or rather
> the ortography. At first I had to many signs for a small
> set of phonemes. But now thanks to Daniel I'm finally
> done with it. I think I need to work a little more on the
> phonology though.
[this in response to my never-ending search for the ultimate phonology]

I think I've had more trouble with orthography than phonology. Tech has no
official script or orthography, really, but the Techian Commonwealth is
working on it (that means I'm working on it). I'm leaning towards some type
of Aramaic-Hebrew abjad with a bunch of diacritics for other consonants, and
vowel points. Right now, I'm using the standard Modern Hebrew (aka Jewish
Square) abjad for demonstration purposes (Jews make up only a small number
of Techians; half of Techians are Muslims and one-third are Christians). I
use an unofficial Latin orthography for the Conlang list, and my attempt at
an Arabic-based system seems to have failed at the moment.

The actual spoken dialects do not reflect the orthography consistently,
since only Classical Tech is written, and you have strange and seemingly
random conventions found in English, French and Gaelic.

Lately, I've done a little freelance calligraphy using cheap felt-tip pens.
If there's a distinctive Tech script, it might end up looking like a very
aberrant form of Syriac or even Avestan.

Fortunately, I have (at least theoretically) about 2,000 word roots from
Bomhard and Kerns' reconstruction of Nostratic, and the lists of
Indo-European and Semitic roots in the American Heritage Dictionary (online
at http://www.bartleby.com). I'd LOVE to have Gamqrelidze and Ivanov's
Kartvelian and Indo-European works in my grubby little hands...

Next, some musical terms. Keep this in mind... 53 tone equal temperament.