Re: Rubaga Orthog. Part 1

On Sun, 21 Jul 2002 09:30:41 -0400, Christopher Wright <faceloran@...>
wrote:

>Jeff Jones sekalge:
>>    _soft_, when the consonant letter is preceded by the soft mark `,
>>        a vowel letter, or R,
>>    _firm_, when the consonant letter is preceded by the firm mark ^,
>>and _hard_, otherwise.
>>There is also a 4th category, _phrase-initial_, which duplicates
>>either the hard or soft form, but isn't relevent until later.
>
>Okay, perhaps I'm being denser than osmium, but what exactly do the marks
>mean? I tried to find a definition and failed.
OK, good -- that tells me that this section doesn't stand on it's own.
Probably some sample words would help.
hard:  {ca'bo}  ["ka:.bU]   {sa'ge}  ["sa:.J\I]   {e'to}   ["e:.tU]
firm:  {i^bra}  ["iv.r`3]   {lo^ga}  ["lo:.N3]
soft:  {cabe}   ["kaev_j]   {teage}  ["t_Saej\]   {dugato} [dU"RAoT_w]

The marks are used to distinguish different pronunciations, and are sort of
like the 'h' in Englsh 'sh', 'ch' (except that English 'h' can also be used
by itself). They don't have specific definitions other than their usage.
The names 'hard', 'firm', and 'soft' are arbitrary, and will change as soon
as I come up with better ones.

>It looks slightly confusing to me, but then, I'm not a phonetician. (I
>like the pronunciation of that word, especially with two vowel sounds in
>phone.)
If it's only slightly confusing, it's better than I thought!
Grasea,
Jones.

>Laimes,
>Wright.