Re: Optimum number of symbols

Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...> wrote:
>Mike S. wrote:>Actually, most of the time, these patches are either
>unphonetic
>>or unproductive as phonetic markers.  I'm not sure what to call
>>the "h" in English diagraphs, but a phonetic marker, it is
>>certainly not.  Likewise, the Spanish tilde only marks one grapheme
>>--arguably phonetic but hardly productive.  The German umlaut
>>*seems* like a phonetic marker--until we learn that a"u
>>is pronounced [OI].  What's that all about?
>
>It's the result of phonetic changes after the "phonetic patch" was
>introduced. I'm sure one or another of our resident germanophones 'll
>correct me if I get the details wrong, but basically "au" was [OU] in the
>good old days, and "äu" was the umlauted version [2Y]. Later these mutated
>into [AU] and [OY], giving the modern apparent weirdity.
>
>                                                          Andreas
John Cowan also pointed out my error.  I guess my anglophonic ear
needs some practice hearing front round glides :)