Re: M

Am 07/04 19:09  Herman Miller yscrifef:

> In general, Mârshen spelling retains sounds that are silent in some
> dialects but pronounced in others, so "herb" is <hërb>, for instance (the
> <h> is silent in some dialects, and the <r> in others). (Oh, I should have
> noted that syllabic l, n, r are written <ël> <ën> <ër>.)
>
is <ër> used for agent nouns? -er, -or, -our.

> >>    unstressed: Alive, sofA     ë  as in fUR, fURry
> >Can 'e-umlaut' be used for the sound in refEr?
>
> In all the dictionaries I checked, "fur" and "refer" have the same sound.
> If these sounds are distinct in Pâkiyâ, perhaps "ï" could be adopted for
> one of the two. How do they differ in New Zealand English?
>
They are not distinct, but I was curious as you gave no exemple of
stressed ER.

> "Orange" might be one of those irregular words, then. How about "fOrest"?
>
Hmmm.  Sounds like /fVUr@st/ to me.

> That's a good question. It seems odd to write "you" as <ü>, "Europe" as
> <Ürep>, or "Yukon" as <Ükon>! So preserving initial <y> might have some
> justification in these cases. But it might be nice to be able to write
> "union" as <ünyen> or "Utah" as <Ütâ>. I haven't decided all the details of
> vowel spelling; this is a bit of a rough sketch. But I think I might allow
> both spellings. Mârshen spelling isn't meant to be exactly phonemic, just a
> good guide to pronunciation.
>
I don't find initial <ü> ugly.  It happens in Russian.  <ü> for eu-
looks right to me, and probably not unknown in Martian nomenclature for
the classic placenames given before colonization on the planet.  I
suggest that <yü> might become used as subject form and <Ü> as the
object form, except among those lowlives who think it is 'cool' to write
<Ü> all the time.

> Speakers of various dialects initially should be able figure out the
> pronunciation of any word without looking it up, except for a (hopefully)
> small number of irregular "tomato-class" words that vary in unpredictable
> ways. By the time Mârshen becomes established as the official language of
> Mars, some of these variations will probably have been evened out, and a
> distinct Martian dialect will develop. But it has its roots in a variety of
> English that's probably not too different from the English spoken today. So
> it seems logical to approach it from that direction.
>
General Martian will probably take all the colonial dialects mix them up
and then level out all the differences.  That is what is said to have
happened in New Zealand English I read recently.  Still if you choose to
develop this project further I would be interested in hearing about what
happened to the colonists on Mars (Mârz).  Espcially if they ended up on
a world like
http://www.btinternet.com/~consty/render/planets/bluemars.htm . :)

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@griffler.co.nz
alias Mungo Foxburr of Loamsdown
http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/homepage.html

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