Re: To Christophe (Uusisuom and Esperanto)

--- Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...> wrote:
> The Other Matt wrote:
> >
> >Hi all!
> >
> >Apologies if I'm mis-reading this conversation (or
> >butting in where I should not), but it seems to me
> >that Daniel (creator of Uusisuom) must have been
> >talking about "u" vs "y" when the matter became a
> >little heated, and then Matt (all, please note that
> >I'm Matt too!) replied that this distinction is
> quite
> >uncommon in most living languages.  Is that right?
> >
> >Whether that distinction of u vs y is common or not
> in
> >living languages, I for one have got this soft spot
> >for that distinction.  I think Daniel's Uusisuom
> holds
> >many elements from Finnish, hence that distinction
> (as
> >will my own Vya:a:h).  Beyond being unique and even
> >ambiguous, shouldn't our languages have some
> pizzazz?
> >Spices up the sound/s...
>
> Hm, you seem to believe that Uusisuom {y} and {u}
> have the same
> pronunciations as Finnish {y} and {u} (which's tense
> [y] and [u] accoridng
> to some, and lax [Y] and [U] according to some. Any
> Finns who'll enlighten
> me? Perhaps either is OK?). However, from Daniel44's
> discriptions, {u} is
> lax [U] and {y} tense [u]. It's AFAICT rare among
> natlangs that this
> difference is phonemic, and in any case the
> differenc is smaller than the
> difference between Finnish /u/ and /y/.
>
> Now, this would be perfectly fine if Uusiuom was an
> artlang. I've seen
> natlangs with weirder distinctions than that
> (weirder to me - presumeably
> not to their speakers!). But as Uusisuom is an
> apparently very serious
> attempt at an IAL (International Auxiliary
> Language), so I and some others
> have suggested that it'd make sense not to include
> distinctions that a very
> large number of people (=potential speakers of the
> IAL) will find difficult
> to produce. To take me for an example, I'd pronounce
> the very word
> 'Uusisuom' wrongly half the time, with tense [u]s.
>
>      Andreas
Hi Andreas,
Appreciate your insight & correction of my
misunderstanding.  I guess I have not studied
linguistics formally, to the point to distinguish
between the notations you indicated above.  Anyhow,
I'll take your word...
Btw, speaking of notations, would you or anyone here
(eg, Yoon Ha!) be kind enough to send a "crash course"
of proper sound notating in linguistic terms?  I see
the letters, some capitalized, some small, but haven't
got a good grasp on the difference.  Ironically, I
have studied over 10 languages in my young life - but
my way to learn them is not really via the formal
linguistical notations.  Anyhow, would appreciate your
advice/help!
Matt
(I'm 25, probably younger than the other Matt/s, so
shall we all call me "Young Matt" - if I may be so
vain?)  ;-p



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