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Re: Parsing Open Syllables

From:Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 14, 2004, 11:50
*PLEASE* don't start new threads by replying to old ones, it's
*incredibly* annoying. Almost every email client that I know of has a
built-in address book and/or supports an external one!

--
Tristan.

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004, Gary Shannon wrote:

> So I'm thinking maybe it's about time I actually > complete a full conlang with a grammar that covers all > the bases and a vocabulary a few thousand words or > more. All my conlangs seem to get halfway there at > most. > > So I'm putting together the preliminary material on > what approaches this new, improved, destined to be > completed conlang will use and my thoughts turned to > open syllables. > > I've always favored open syllables. They are neat and > tidy and east to synthesize. But there's a parsing > probelem with the spoken language. When you hear > "konali" is that "ko nali" or is it "kona li"? Longer > sequences of sounds get even more difficult to parse. > So here's the solution that occured to me as I was > dozing off last night: > > Words take the form CVV or VCVV or CVCVV or VCVCVV or > CVCVCVV or VCVCVCVV, etc., where the final syllable > must always have a vowel pair and no other syllable in > a word is permitted to have a vowel pair. > > If you hear "konialiu" there is only one way to parse > it: "konia liu", since "ko nialiu" breaks the vowel > pair rule. > > Words may occasionally end in three vowels as in > "taui" but when that happens they are invariably > pronounced with a glottal stop after the first vowel > "ta'ui" and the main stress for the word falls on the > first vowel after the stop. > > When the final vowels of a word are the same as in > "tapii" they are separated buy a glottal stop: > "tapi'i" and the main stress for the word falls on the > vowel _before_ the stop. > > I'm thinling my alphabet will be 21 letters; the Roman > alphabet minus C,J,Q,Y,X. > > --gary >
-- Tristan

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Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>