Re: SKETCH: Left-handed language :)
From: | Tim May <butsuri@...> |
Date: | Friday, April 19, 2002, 20:46 |
Amanda Babcock writes:
> A brief sketch in honor of my dumping a mug of boiling water on my right
> hand, something that I can type without it :)
>
> PHONEMIC INVENTORY
>
> The language contains the following phonemes (chart looks best in non-
> proportional font with tab stops set every 8 characters):
>
> Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar
>
> Stops b td
> Affric. c g
> Fric. fv sz q x
> Liquids w r
>
> Plus the vowels a and e.
>
> (Interesting that the only stops missing are p and k, which happen
> to be the only stops *available* in the Dvorak version of
> left-handed-language...)
Well, in this orthography, yes, but q could be a stop. And ' is a
glottal stop sometimes, I think. (of course, theoretically anything
could represent a stop if you're prepared to countenance a
sufficiently perverse orthography).
>
> ORTHOGRAPHY
>
> The language, unlike its Dvorakian cousin, is largely unpunctuated, having
> only the exclamation point, and on some keyboards, the tilde.
>
If you really wanted a challenge, you could try making a right-hand
Dvorak conlang. I _think_ the only English word you can spell with
that set is 'cwm' (and you have to accept a fairly broad definition of
English to even get that). Perhaps you could base it around syllabic
liquids and nasals...
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