Re: To Christophe (Uusisuom and Esperanto)

--- J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...> wrote:
> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 26 Apr 2001, Daniel44 wrote:
> >
> > > Here, Christophe, is the difference between 'u'
> and 'y':
> > >
> > > 'u' pronounced like the 'u' in 'pUt'
> > > 'y' pronounced like the 'ui' in 'sUIt'
> > >
> > > Just because you may have some trouble
> distinguishing between these two
> > > sounds, does not automatically mean they are not
> two valid and distinct
> > > sounds and that other people automatically have
> trouble pronouncing them.
> > > You are assuming too much.
> >
> > Ano...anyone have statistics on the percentage of
> vowel systems that do
> > make that distinction?  A Korean could do it
> easily.  Most
> > English-speakers probably could (in the U.S.,
> anyway...?).  I don't know
> > about a Japanese speaker who has ieaou for his/her
> vowel system, or an
> > Arabic speaker who has aiu for his/her vowel
> system.  Perhaps it would be
> > worth surveying the existing speaker base and
> asking how many find that
> > distinction easy/hard?
>
> My sense is that the /u/ - /U/ distinction is quite
> uncommon in the world's
> languages.
>
> Ian Maddieson, a phonetician who used to be here at
> UCLA and is now at Berkeley,
> wrote a very useful survey of the sounds of the
> world's languages, based on UPSID
> (the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database).
> The book is called "Patterns
> of Sounds", published by Cambridge University Press
> (1984), and is a useful
> reference for anyone interested in making their
> artlang/auxlang naturalistic,
> and/or taking statistical frequency data into
> account in their designs.
>
> Of course, Daniel44 has already expressed a contempt
> for linguists, so I doubt if
> he'll be interested.  But others might...
>
> Matt.
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...

-The other Matt





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