Re: Tech alphabet, Hebrew version

From: "Steg Belsky" <draqonfayir@...>
[in response to me]

> Maybe you could mark them with a vowelless yud.
...
> let's see, you have 4 umlauted vowels?
> you could use shuruq and hholam-malei, and invent versions of them using
> yud instead of vav.
I'm still working on the vowels. There are six short vowels /i @ u E a O/,
eight long vowels /i: e: E: @: a: O: u: o:/, and six diphthongs /ai @i oi ui
au @u eu iu/. The umlauts result when a following vowel is lost but leaves
"vowel residue", but the rules are REALLY complicated. Vaguely, it's the
result of CVCV > CVVC inversion, where V1 and V2 by sandhi produce a new
vowel.

Also, the front vowels palatize preceding consonants (even as "residue");
back vowels labialize them. The fronted back vowels do both.

The phonology I demonstrated is not even exhaustive, since I didn't include
the labialized velars and uvulars which are common to most dialects, or the
palatized consonants. This is when yod and waw act as "soft sign" and "hard
sign". The matter of gemination (dagesh fortis) is still up in the air,
either they're going to be long consonants or consonants with some
additional feature, maybe pharyngealization ("emphasis", as in Arabic).

> Also a question, is there a reason you made shin /s/ and shin-apostrophe
> /S/?  The other way would seem more logical, to me at least.  Or if
> possible you could use a superimposed shin/sin for /s/, i.e. |W| with
> dots on both sides.
Yeah, it does look strange. Hebrew shin corresponds to Tech /s/ *and* /S/
(and Arabic /s/), while sin corresponds to /tK/ ~ [K] (and Arabic /S/).
Samech corresponds to /ts/ ~ [s]. Those are the Proto-Afro-Asiatic values,
at least according to the sources I've seen -- and Tech is largely based on
PAA or at least Proto-Semitic. So it's ultraconservatism at work here.

I didn't think about the sin with two dots! Of course, that might be
confused as /tKo:/, or sin + cholem. But I'll be using the mater lectionis
with /e:/ and /o:/ anyway.

The geresh, that apostrophe-like thing, is a universal "sound shifter", as
you can probably tell. A safer alternative to writing s1, s2 etc.