Re: Request for help, Spanish

----- Original Message -----
From: Danny Wier <dawier@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, October 11, 1999 11:47 AM
Subject: Re: Request for help, Spanish

By the way, I wonder why Spanish doesn't write <nn> for palatal <n>, inst=
ead
of <=F1>, so that an extra character isn't necessary?  I mean, it would
conform to the most usual convention for indicating palatization, like <l=
l>
does (and <rr> indicates a sound shift, from tap to trill).  Also, <=F1>
usually comes from Latin <nn> anyway, such as _a=F1o_ 'year' from _annus_.
(I've seen <ny> as an ASCII alternative, but I still think <nn> looks
better, compare <anyo> to <anno>, <cany=F3> to <cann=F3n> for <ca=F1=F3n>=
 'cannon')
<<<<<

The graph <=F1> started out as an <n> with a line over it, to indicate a
'long' or double <n>, so yes, originally it was written <nn>. The line
became a tilde eventually. Medieval scribes apparently also put lines ove=
r
vowels to show that they were leaving out a nasal which should be
pronounced; why the <=F1> graph caught on in Spanish but the vowels with
tildes or macrons did not, I don't know. As for <ll>, perhaps the height =
of
the letter <l> prevented putting a line over it, or maybe the macron/tild=
e
was associated mainly with nasals.