Re: Optimum number of symbols

Roger Mills wrote:
> Interesting question.  Is that indeed possible? What about -VmmV-(assuming
> it can occur)-- or would that be analyzed as ...V-syllabic n-mV...?
It would be, and if you see VmmV in a Japanese word, it's simply another
way of romanizing what is often written VnmV

> Which consonants can be geminated wth tsu? Voiceless only, as I suspect?
> What about the palatalized series; can you have e.g. -kky-??
Native: s, p, t, k
Foreign: (z?), b, d, g, f, h

I'm not sure how accepted the _h_ is, I've seen it in an onomatopoeic,
and in an adaptation of the German "Mach"

Palatized, yes.  Example: sekkyou "admonishment, preaching, sermon"
(first such word encountered in a random opening of dictionary.)

> The words _kon'ya, kan'en_ (perhaps even _onna_?) look to me as if they
> could be compounds, though perhaps no longer recognized as such????
Some are, some aren't.  Syllabic n is often derived from n-vowels,
example, anata (you) has an "intimate" variant _anta_, the common
sentence ending _no desu_ is often _n desu_.  Then there's _minna_
"everyone" which seems to be derived from a colloquial mutation of
_mina_ "all".

Verbs which end in -nu, -mu, or -bu in the present tense form their past
tense in -nda (historically -nita, -mita, -bita; how -bita became -nda I
have no idea)

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

Reply