Re: Orthography Question

Steg Belsky wrote:
>
> So, does anyone have a preference / suggestion for which i should
> use? How do you represent foreign words/names in your conlangs?
>
The question is rather biased (between orthography and phonetics)
and really depends on your own preferences and on the ability for
you writing system to represent foreign sounds. Regarding the use
of a foreign word (in a general sense, ie. names but also common
words):

  - You might have an approaching name (1) of a similar phonetics,
    or even perhaps (2) of a cognate origin, and use it as an
    equivalent.

    Ex(2): Computer English "instance" -> Computer French "instance"
         (used in oriented object programming, however these words
         do not have the same meaning in 'standard' french and
         english -- fr. "authority, legal proceedings",
         engl. "example, request").

  - You might adapt the name to your orthography, trying to keep
    its phonetics unchanged. This is a productive process that
    can created new word, generally with a more precise meaning
    than the original one.

    Ex: English "pool" --> French "poule" (used in sport only).
        Computer english "spooler" --> Computer French "spouleur"
        (but of course no one knows that it derives from "spool",
        which would be "bobine", "rouleau" or "cannette" in
        french).

  - You may decide to keep its original orthography, even if
    it doesn't match the phonetics of your language. The risk is
    that the native will progessively change its pronunciation.

    Ex: English "Brian" [brAjAn] ---> French "Brian" (and I have
        heard it pronounced [brIjAn] sometimes). The closest
        adaptation to the french phonetics and orthography would
        be written "braillane" ;-)

Consider also the name "Peter". Of course the french equivalent is
"Pierre" [pjER(@)], but a foreigner would still be called "Peter"
and the  written name would be left unchanged and correctly
pronounced (in modern days) [pI:t@r] (and not [pete] according to
the french  phonetics). But I guess someone in Netherlands would
write it "Pieter", since its pronuncitation is the same as in
english.

In conclusion I guess there is no general rule and that natural
languages use all these techniques indifferently.

In my own conlang Almaqerin, there is no native word beginning
with an /i/ (it's presently impossible according to the current
derivation rules). Nevertheless, I think I would still write
french "Ire`ne" = almaq. "iren". Since the names are preceded by
an article, I could perhaps use "giren" in syllabic transcription,
because there would be an oral lenition "ui hiren", and the
pronunciation would therefore be correct.

I like your idea of using a tilde to mark certain letters. In
the writing system I once devised for Goblin (ogham-like, i.e.
made of strokes and curls attached to a long vertical stem), there
was a similar idea (variants for each foreign vowel such as [u]
and [@] which do not exist in Goblin -- Such variants have a
longer curl and a slightly different design, so that one may
guess that this is only an approaching sound).

Didier.
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