Re: Tj'a-ts'a~n stress pattern

Tim Smith wrote:

>At 04:57 PM 2/9/99 +0100, Kristian Jensen wrote:
>>
>>I have read about bantu languages that lengthen the vowels in
>>stressed syllables. According to the "Compendium of the World's
>>Languages" by George Campbell, Zulu has regular stress on the
>>penultimate syllable and this contains a long vowel.
>
>Could you tell us something about this book?
ISBN 0-415-11392-X (hardback) 1995 Routledge:London
ISBN 0-415-16049-9 (paperback) 1998 Routledge:London

It is a reference book of almost 100 languages including both major
and many of the lesser-known languages of the world. It includes
representatives of most of the language families with samples of
Amerindian such as Navajo, Quechua, and Mapadungu, and of African
languages such as Fulani and Nama (Khoisan); languages of new
independant states of the former Soviet Union, like Uzbek and
Belorussian; and languages of certain ethnic groups aspiring to
self-determination, such as Basque, Breton, and Nivkh (Gilyak). The
articles are order alphabetically and each has a standard structure
for ease of reference, including general historical and
sociolinguistic introduction, writing system, sound system, and
gramatical system. At the end of the book is an appendix of all the
relevant writing systems.

Mind you, the book is a _reference_ book, so it does not go into
detail. It can give conlangers a brief introduction to a certain
language. So I would not recommend this book to someone who wants
more details to a specific language. For instance, there isn't any
diachronic descriptions of any of the languages listed in the book.
I have found the phonological descriptions too standardized making
some of the descriptions imprecise.

-Kristian- 8)