Re: OT: Orthographic challenges

Just very quickly:

T.:
<<
> ige "short"
> igea "shorter"
>
This is not the case. The only agreement is in case, and only
when needed. Adjectives are really proto-verbs after all, as
they generally must be in a verb-serializing/incorporating
language.
 >>

That was a mistake; I meant for ige and igea to be nonce forms,
so they should have had a different gloss, *not* short/shorter.
Something like swanky/swankier.

Oh, and recall that these aren't necessarily noun classes, per se,
but classes of words.  Just as in Spanish, there are two "classes"
of nouns: those that end in "e" and those that don't.  Looking
at the plural "tamales", you can't tell if the singular is "tamale"
or "tamal".  Turns out it's "tamal" (we English speakers got that
wrong).  That's all I meant by classes.

T.:
<<
A transliteration-system, they way I understand it, is a 1 to 1
mapping between an original orthography and a writing scheme in
a foreign language or script.
 >>

Ah, well there's the reason I couldn't understand the problem.
A transliteration system as I understand it is simply a way to
transcribe language X in the orthography of language Y.  It need
not be representative of the orthography of language X in
any way--and, in fact, most times it isn't.  I wouldn't even be able
to think up a word to describe what you'd described as transliteration.
I'd probably call it a representation or approximation of orthography
X in orthography Y...

Well, indeed, that's an entirely different matter, rendering most
of my comments irrelevant.  I'll have to reread the message.

-David
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"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

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