Re: Hmong and semi-syllabic writing

Barry Garcia wrote:
>
> dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu writes:
> >I've always thought that having separate characters for onset
> >and rhyme was an interesting compromise between an alphabet and
> >a syllabary. This kind of system would be useful for a language
> >which allowed onset clusters, like Hmong, but nevertheless had a
> >fairly limited range of syllable types. I'm trying to develop
> >something similar to it for my new project, Shemspreg.
> >
> >Dirk
>
> I created a script once where you had characters for syllables, and also
> single characters for representing vowels, consonants, and diphthongs so
> that if you had a word like: 'naktaandai', you could write it out like:
> 'na-k-ta-a-n-d-ai'. However, creating all the characters for the syllables
> and single characters took me a long time and I found I started to run out
> of letter forms that didnt start to look like one another.
>
> I also made one where it was basically an alphabet, but you also had
> diacritics to represent vowels, and diphthongs (went over the preceeding
> consonant). But also had separate characters for the vowels and dipthongs
> too.
>
        For my Azak, I have an alphabet for the roots and a syllabary for the
suffixes, even if the suffixes are all in the form VC or even VCVC for a
few of them :) . Is there any natlang that does something like this?

> _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
>
> 'The beginning calls for courage; the end demands care'
--
        Christophe Grandsire

        Philips Research Laboratories --  Building WB 145
        Prof. Holstlaan 4
        5656 AA Eindhoven
        The Netherlands

        Phone:  +31-40-27-45006
        E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com