Re: Your Help Appreciated

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Mietus" <sirchuck@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2000 12:58 PM
Subject: Your Help Appreciated


> Before I make my rather grandiose request to you good people, I just want
to
> say that I¹ve been lurking for about a month now, and not only have I
> learned a lot about the hobby, I¹ve been more than impressed by the
civility
> and generosity of the members of this list.
>
> Now, having said that, as a rank amateur in this hobby, I throw myself on
> the mercy of this list for assistance. I¹ve developed a proto-root
language
> (Palaged) with the following phonetics:
>
> My consonants, in order of frequency, are:
> /r/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /d/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /th/, /v/, /g/, /dh/, /p/, /f/,
> /sh/, /b/, /j/, /w/, /z/, /ch/, /h/, /zh/, /wh/, /rh/, /kw/, /kh/, /gw/,
> /kth/, /vh/, /ng/
>
> ...where /r/ is trilled and /rh/ is not, and /vh/ is a non-dental /v/ (it
> could also be classified as a non-labial /m/).
Just a little nitpick in conventions.  What does consonants like /kth/ mean?
Slanted brackets (slashes) are used to give phonetic descriptions, then
/kth/ would mean the phonemes /k/, /t/ and /h/ (a pretty interesting cluster
IMO), or does /th/ mean english <th> sound? (note: angle brackets for
orthographic conventions).  In most ASCII-IPA encodings, english voiceless
<th> is noted as /T/, or does /th/ mean aspirated /t/ (/t_h/)?

In other words.  Are above description phonetic or orthographic?  Are
descriptions as /kth/ consonant clusters?

Well.  non-dental /v/ or non-labial /m/... I can't be sure what they mean.
Probably a non-nasal /m/.  I could thing about /B/ sound: voiced labial
fricative, as intervocalic <b> in Spanish or beta in greek.

> The vowels, again, in order of frequency, are:
> /e/, /a/, /o/, /E/, /&/, /I/, /i/, /u-/, /U/, /u/
Is /u-/ IPA barred u (high central rounded)?

> Allowed dypthongs:
> /Eo/, /aI/, /Io/, /IE/, /Ie/, /Ia/, /IU/, /Iu-/, /Ea/, /Eu-/
[...]

-- Carlos Th