Re: New Lang: Igassik

Jeff Jones wrote:

> >10 Vowels:
> >i y     ue u
> >e oe    ^ o
> >  ae    a
>
>Aha! something to sink my teeth into! I'm proud of myself for guessing the
>vowel (approximate) pronunciation, which I usually can't do. Wouldn't it be
>more consistent, though, to switch {y} with {ue}?
I had that at one point, but I couldn't bring myself to keep it. It isn't
the <ue> that bothered me, because I'm used to doing that for German, but I
couldn't stand having <y> be a back vowel. That's pretty petty, so maybe I
should just grin and bear it.

I also don't like having <^>. I think I'll adopt taliesin the storyteller's
(real name?) example and use <@>. (My brain is already protesting: THAT'S A
SCHWA, DUMMY!)

>  Both rounded front vowels
>would then have the formula rounded back vowel + {e}. I know IPA uses {y}
>for a front vowel, but this is a dumb move on their part, IMO. And, IIRC,
>don't some Slavicists use {y} for an unrounded central/back vowel?
I used <y> for unrounded central high vowel in Telek.

> >25 consonants:
> >
> >   T t k '
> >b D d g
> >f th s x h
> >v dh z
> >m N n ng ~
> >w j
> >r l
> >
> >T and D are interdental stops.
> >th and dh are interdental fricatives
> >N is an interdental nasal
> >~ is a "free-floating" nasal (more on this below)
> >l is an alveolar lateral
> >r is a retroflex tap.
>
>Let's see, {t}, {d}, and {n} are what, alveolar? Since upper case is used
>for interdental stops and nasals, shouldn't the fricatives also (for
>consistency, again) be upper case? {TH} and {DH} -- this would also solve
>the ambiguity involving {h}, I think.
Yes, it would. I hate using capital letters in an orthography though.

My problem is that I want a system that anyone can read no matter what
email/browser they are using. That may not be practical with this language
though.

>Would this be an exasmple of an "initial feature?"
I suppose you could call it that.


>A nice outline, professor. I hope my questions are helpful.
Thanks, but I'm not a professor.  Still a lowly graduate student with
ambitions of being a professor someday. But not too soon -- I still bothers
me when my students call me Mr. Smith instead of Marcus. "Professor Smith"
would drive me nuts! :-)




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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
   -- Kenneth Hale
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