Re: Optimum number of symbols

Quoting Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>:

> "Mike S." wrote:
> > I am relatively unfamiliar with Japanese script, but I have studied
> > enough Japanese grammar to know that, while the syllable structure
> > is simple, it's not that simple.  There are more than 46 syllables.
>
> Correct.  There is also a voicing diacritic (which, due to historical
> sound changes, also has the odd property of changing /h/ to /b/)
Not so strange. As I recall, *p lenited in initial position to
contemporary /h/, whereas in morphological alternations, it became
a /b/ after nasal codas (the unmarked condition).

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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