Re: Senyecan Orth. & Phon .
From: | Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, October 12, 2004, 16:21 |
Charlie wrote (to Christian):
(re depiction of epenthetic schwa)
> In the original study I use an epsilon; easy to write, a tiny
> backward 3. I had originally used e diaresis (as in Albanian), &
> would have used it here, but I can't make it!!! I can make ä &
> ï &
> ü, but not the e or the o. What is that all about? I'm using Alt
> with the 3-digit ASCII numbers. Hmmmm, now that I think about it,
> maybe ï would be subject to less misunderstanding.
ï is sometimes hard to make out, depending on font. ë is Alt 0235, ö is
0246. (Your computer may differ, but it shouldn't :-( I could be wrong, but
every character from #0192 to 0255 should be available, and viewable by all
or most of us.)
>
> <<BTW, what's wrong with not writing epenthetic schwas?
> You're under no obligation to present your language in
> a phonetic spelling. In fact, many of us like obscure
> orthographies. ;o)>>
>
> I guess the native speakers don't write it because they know when to
> insert it. Rather like speakers of Hebrew not needing the vowel
> points because they know which vowels to use. In any case, there is
> no grapheme for it. I use one when transliterating as an aid to
> those
> who are not fluent in Senyecan.
Right. You and your "speakers" know which clusters are and aren't permitted;
the casual reader may not. (There are epenthetic schwas in Kash too, but the
phonotactics are much simpler, and I don't indicate them, except in phonetic
transcription.)