Re: Whatever happened to Aelya?

--- In conlang@y..., Aidan Grey <grey@F...> wrote:

> Why should the roman transliteration be identical to the native
> system? A new linguist coming in might still use a different system,
> actually spelling it 's' when before a front vowel, 'h' intervocallically,
> and so on.
True.  I've considered using a "renormalized" transliteration for
use in RPGs right linguistically challenged people.  ;-)  Still, my
pseudo-native transliteration has two advantages:

- It allows me to fluently write an Obrenje text in my Cirnaja fonts,
where the letters are mapped onto the keyboard according to my Latin transliteration

- When grammar changes a verb stem like |cus| /hMs/ "be quiet" into
|cys|, I don't have to change the spelling to reflect the change of
pronunciation, which is /sys/ rather than /hys/.  So the verb remain
recognizable.


> Or even some variation with 2 possible representations in
> transliteration.
That's a good idea, I'll probably devise a more user-friendly
orthography.  Obrenje was at one point intended to be the language of
the Trill race of Star Trek, so |zedxia dakkce| would have to be
re-spelled |jadzia dax| when used with non-linguists.  =)


>     If palatization is determined by neighboring vowels, why does there
> need to be a special mark for it in the native script? Wouldn't the fact
> that an i follows be enough?
It usually is enough.  The palatization mark is used only in
circumstances where the letter would normally not be pronounced
palatized.  A prominent example is |tash| "no", which is spelt
T_with_A S_with_palatizer (though nowadays the T character alone can
be used as a shorthand).


>    And the forms with doubled letters in transcription (like nokkce or
> noggze) - why does the geminate mark in the native script appear on the
> kc/gz, and not on the k/g? The sample shows gemination on a g, with no z in
> sight? What's going on here - I'm confused.
That's a mistake, I simply forgot the z.  Good to see that someone
actually pays attention.  =P

By the way, the affricate pairs are kc/gx and ts/dz, gz is not an affricate.


>    Keep in mind, native script use and transcription don't have to have
> anything in common at all.
>
> >Thanx, no need to put some effort into that.  You've already been a
> >lot of help, and more would probably fall under plagiarism.  ;-)
>
>     Well, thanks for the interest if nothing else!
>
>    Aidana