Re: Optimum number of symbols

Tom Wier:
> Quoting And Rosta <a-rosta@...>:
>
> > The Livagian script has one character per 'syllabeme' (approximately
> > = syllable), plus further characters representing sequences of more
> > than one syllabeme, which serve to increase written brevity and to
> > exploit the greater ability of scripts (compared to phonology) to
> > sustain contrasts. The syllabeme is the minimal combinatorially
> > unrestricted unit of Livagian phonology. The Livagian script
> > contains thousands of characters, though, so is motivated more
> > by principle than by practical considerations.
>
> So, is a "syllabeme" something like syllabification already
> present in underlying representation?
The definition of syllabeme [-- this a term in lyacology, Livagian
linguistics, not in general linguistics] is 'minimal tactically
(combinatorially) unconstrained unit'. I.e. you chop up a
phonological string into units as small as possible such that
they can be recombined in arbitrary orders and still yield a
valid phonological string.

Every syllabeme can be realized phonetically by a consonant plus
a vowel (including <ay> [aH, ay]), but under certain phonologically
defined circumstances the vowel can elide and, additionally,
adjacent consonants can coalesce.

So on the whole I'd say you guessed right.

--And.