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Re: Circumfixes and syllabic consonants

From:Peter Clark <pc451@...>
Date:Saturday, November 7, 1998, 0:27
---Christopher Palmer <reid@...> wrote:
> > On Sun, 1 Nov 1998, Peter Clark wrote: > > > P.S. Once I decided that I wanted more syllabic consonants, I did a > > little fudging with the phonological rules, not to mention the > > romanization, which is why Enamin is now spelled Enamyn: the "y" > > preceeding a consonant (can) indicate a syllabic consonant. Thus, > > /En.am.n/. > > What I'm more interested in is your syllabification -- a preference
for
> codas over onsets (counter to natlang universals)? Can you give us
more
> cool examples?
Oh! Freude! Bliss unbound, someone is actually showing interest! Syllabic consonants are a fundamentally important feature to Enamyn (ever since I added them this spring). I haven't actually figured out a frequency list, since I'm in the process of restructuring the grammar to make room for even more of possibilities. (Originally, only /m n r l/ were going to be allowable syllabic consonants.) So, with the caveat that this could be out of date by tomorrow morning, here goes: Syllabic consonants are almost entirely grammatical; only a few roots have them, and most of them are onsets. For instance, "pyscin" /ps=.kin/, "a whisper". (Here, I'm using "=" to indicate a syllabic consonants, using SAMPA.) But there are a couple that occur in the root's coda; "torhm" /t7x.m=/, "thunder" (the /7/ is an unrounded closed-mid back vowel; basically, say /o/ with unrounded lips). As for the grammatical examples, I really wish that I had some, but I'm still working out mutations, and haven't had much time to do even that. I'm still debating how I want case, tense, aspect, and modality to be used morphologically. A part of me wants to use mutation and vowel umluat/ablaut/whateverlaut, but another part of me dreads the challenge and wonders if there isn't an easier and quicker way to do it. (Which means that I'll probably go with mutation, just because it's the hardest, most complex way I know. I'll gladly take suggestions, though.) I wasn't thinking of universals when I added syllabics; I just like them both in the onset and coda positions. Basically, my philosophy is "If I can say it, and I like what I hear, it's in." :Peter == _____ _____________________________________________________ | \ O) ...for Christ plays in ten thousand places, ) _|__/ | Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his | / |eter | To the Father through the features of men's faces. | | | | -Gerard Manley Hopkins, "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" | \___lark (_____________________________________________________(O _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com