Re: Romanization of Reduced Vowels

Kristian wrote :
> >>As one can see vowel in minor syllables has several phonetic
> >>values depending on the environment: voiced and voiceless [@],
> >>zero, [U], or [I]. Should this vowel be represented in Roman
> >>orthography?
> >
That question isn't still settled after tens of years of struggle among scholars so
feel free to do what best pleases you :-) Why don't you write these vowels as
they are written in Khmer syllabary ? Of course some words pronounce
differently from their script but they're not so many in the daily-life
vocabulary. I'm not a scholar and I don't like the Khmer syll. very much so I
write vocabulary with my own script as it's pronounced in the place where my
brother lives in PHN. I write vowels : a, e, e+circumflex, i, o, o+circumflex,
u, e+umlaut, o+umlaut and long vowels are doubled. Lonely schwa is noted *e*
and *o*, *a* or *e* in diphtongs : I note *w@*, *e@*, *o@*, *i@* and
*e+umlaut@* as *u'o*, *e'a*, *o'a*, *ie* and *o+"a* because that's how they
sound in that place (with accent on first vowel of short diphtongs). It works
very well, I never get vowels wrong.
I'm very happy that you learn Khmer : that's so rare but so rewarding because
Khmer people LOVE it when barangs have a try. You must go there. I go back
there in January for my brother's wedding : I can't wait visiting my future
Franco-Khmer nephews and nieces :-) Do you want me to buy books for you there ?
I could send them to you when I'm back. They're pretty boring but very cheap
there.
Mathias



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