DUH (was Re: Osmanya (Somali) script)

>From: Danny Wier <dawier@...>
[Somali]

>Labials: b f m w
>Dentals: t d dh s n l r
>Palatal: j sh y
>Velar: k g kh
>Uvular: q
>Pharyngeal: x c
>Glottal: ? h
>Short vowels: i e a o u
>Long vowels: ii ee aa oo uu
>(in Osmanya: iy ey a? ow uw)
>  The order of the letters are based on Arabic, but the letters themselves
>have more of a Greco-Coptic look to them.  It is a true alphabet, not an
>abjad like Arabic or an abugida like Ethiopic (both of which are also used
>to write Cushitic languages including Somali, Oromo, Beja etc.)  This
>script
>could just as easily be used to write Swahili, except the alphabet lacks a
>p.  There are no capitals in this script.
DUH!  I just said that the script is based on Greek and Coptic, so for the
non-Somali sound /p/, why not use pi in this form:

------
|  |
|  |

Note the extension of the topbar beyond the legs, so as not to be confused
with Osmanya /l/.

I see resemblances between Osmanya x (/h./) and Latin H, Osmanya kh (/x/ or
/X/?) and Coptic khei (they look like h), Osmanya d and Greek delta, Osmanya
l and a rounded version of Greek lambda, Osmanya n which is Greek nu turned
on its side, Osmanya f an altered Coptic fai.  Osmanya j /dZ/ is a single
vertical stroke, but the same vertical line is Greek iota.  Osmanya lacks
the following Greek-Coptic letters:

zeta theta xi pi phi chi psi (Coptic) cima tei (= /tS/ and /ti/)

Greek-Coptic lacks Osmanya alif (= /?/ or /a:/), xaa (but it does come from
Greek eta and Latin H), dhaad, cain, qaaf, haa.  I once considered using
Hebrew letters to expand on Greek-Coptic for aleph and ayin.

So Tech now has all the letters of Osmanya, plus Greek-Coptic additions.
The new value for dh is dl, and g becomes gh /G/ (the voiced uvular
stop/fricative).

But more consonants are going to be necessary.  Using conventions in Arabic
and Hebrew, a raphe (bar above), or "umlaut" above a consonant, can produce
the letters missing in Osmanya but found in Arabic (and Persian-Turkic
extensions in parentheses:

(paa) (tsheem) thaa dhaal zaai (zhaai) saad taa zaa (vaa) (gaaf) (nguun)

The same diacritic can mark fronted vowels -- then it would be a true umlaut
(a > a" /&/, o > o" /%/, u > u" /y/).

And I just realized that /%/ is a good symbol for mid front rounded.  DUH...

Daniel A. Wier  ¶¦¬þ
Lufkin, Texas USA
http://communities.msn.com/DannysDoubleWideontheWeb

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