Re: The Language Code (take 4)

Dirk:
>                 e       logical
typo: should be 'engineered'(!)

> English: Tn Pt*p++24,9(c)v(c) Wntar-- Mi++f+dt2a3c2n2 Sf++bsvoargn
> Lc++d+1000000+
To get English down to 9 vowels requires a degree of ruthless parsimony
that would be highly controversial. At a purely descriptive level
(i.e. in the Code's spirit of providing a flavour of the language
rather than an analysis of it), I would say English has 19-22 vowels
(for my accent; 19 definites + 3 marginals). Student textbooks and
modern British dictionaries would use 20. That figure of c.20 better
reflects the typological eccentricity of the English vowel system
& the fact that it is responsible for most dialectal variation.

I know you mean it only as a casual example of the use of the code,
but it illustrates one of the problems of typological comparison --
how surfacey are the descriptions of each language? (Too surfacey,
and differences get overstated; not surfacey enough, and differences
get understated.)

--And.

[to preempt someone asking what the vowels are, here they are:
I e & V Q U i: u: A: O: aI OI eI aU @U I@ e@ 3:
the 3 marginals: U@ i &:

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