Re: Messy orthography (Re: Sound change rules for erosion)

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 00:14:30 +0000, Tim May
<butsuri@...> wrote:

> Paul Bennett wrote at 2003-11-21 18:22:33 (-0500)
> > On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 17:22:45 -0500, John Cowan <cowan@...>
> > wrote:
> >
> > Odd note: Googling Sakao, it appears on Langmaker.com, which is odd
> > because I was convinced it was a natlang. It also appears in
> > Ethnologue.com (code SKU) thus I'm officially confused. Are there
> > two Sakaos out there?
> >
>
> Langmaker includes Babel texts of natlangs.  Sakao is spoken in
> Vanuatu, as the Ethnologue says.  Jaques Guy (who submitted the text
> to Langmaker) did fieldwork on it there, and posted this to the list
> in 1992; it's about Tolomako, but some contrasting features of Sakao
> are mentioned.
>
And a very interesting read it was, too. Very handy. A bit minimalist a
language for my tastes (I prefer a fair amount of redundancy), but fun
anyway.

Herewith, a post from sci.lang, again by Jacques Guy, comparing the same
two languages ...

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3bjmtc%24ci3%40medici.trl.OZ.AU

... from which I have taken the liberty to copy the section comparing the
phoneme sets of both languages. It's not in SAMPA, in fact I think it
predates the spread of SAMPA.

> Tolomako vowels: a, e, i, o, u
> consonants: p, t, k, B (<beta>), G (<gamma>), m, n, s, ts, r, l
> syllable structure is (C)V(V)
>
> Sakao vowels: a  (front unrounded)
> a^ (back rounded)
> E  (<epsilon>)
> e
> i
> O  (IPA mirror image of "c")
> o
> u
> oe (i.e. IPA o-with-e as "oe" in French "oeil")
> o/ (i.e. IPA o-slash, "eu" as in French "peu")
> y    (i.e. French "u")
> (i)  (an always unstressed high vowel, unmarked
> for rounding or backing, as elusive as the
> infamous French so-called "mute e")
> diphthongs: oeE
> a^O
> consonants: p, t, k, m, n, ng, B(<beta>), D (<delta>),
> G (<gamma>), h, s, r, R (unvoiced trill), l
> semiconsonants: j, w
> syllable structure (that is, if "syllable" makes any sense in that
> language, and I suspect it does not): a single vowel, or diphthong,
> surrounded by any number of consonants.
> Example: i       "thou"
> mhErtpr "having sung and stopped singing thou kept silent"
> (m-2nd pers. hErt "to sing" -p perfective, -r continuous)
>
> Oh, I forgot: consonants are long or short, e.g. oeBe "drum", oeBBe
> "bed".