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Re: Optimum number of symbols

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Sunday, May 19, 2002, 20:39
Raymond Brown wrote:
> 1. What is the optimum number of symbols?
I'd say it would depend on the language. A language with a simple phonology and simple syllables is well-suited to a syllabry, but a language like English with a more complex phonology would be impossible to have a syllabry, altho a syllabic alphabet might work, or perhaps using symbols to represent common consonant clusters. So, say, one symbol per phoneme plus symbols for things like "st", "sp", "sk", "sn" "sl" "fl" "tr" "str", etc., as well as "kt", "ks", "lp", etc. That would probably number a couple hundred or so, just as a guesstimate.
> 3. Have such scripts been alphabetic (like JRRT's Tengawr and Dwarvish > runes), or have you used some other system?
Uatakassi uses a slightly modified syllabry. What I mean by slightly modified is that there are characters for V, CV and CLV, as well as for L by itself (due to historical reasons; there's no special phonetic quality of that l), plus diacritics for the codas -s, -z, -f, -v, -n, and gemination. Combinations of Ci + V characters are used for CyV and Cu + V for CwV. There are also a set of ligatures used to indicate syllables that have developed fairly recently, when /tS/ /dZ/ and /C/ split off as distinct phonemes from their original phonemes /t/ /d/ and /k/. /ti/ /di/ and /ki/ are now contrasting with /tSi/ /dZi/ and /Ci/ (they're usually realized as [tsi] [dzi] and [ki]), ligatures of the -a set of those consonants plus _i_. Chúju, its descendant, uses a kind of hybrid of a syllabry, syllabic alphabet, and pure alphabet derived from the Kassi syllabry -- "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

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