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C (was: Acadon (was: Lingwa de Planeta))

From:R A Brown <ray@...>
Date:Monday, August 6, 2007, 16:14
Henrik Theiling wrote:
> Hi! > > R A Brown writes: > >> ... Quite so. It would appear that in LFN |c| is the preferred >> spelling, but you can use |k| if you really want to! >> >> As LFN is quite clearly a Romance conlang, I would expect /k/ to be >> spelled |c| in all environments except before /e/ and /i/. Then >> one might employ either the |ch| of Italian & Romanian, or the |qu| >> of French, Catalan, Spanish & Portuguese (or maybe even |k|!) ... > > > In my Terkunan, although meant to be a typical romlang, I chose to > write /k/ as |k|, because the language has no palatalisation at all > and in this context, it was easier for me to read Terkunan aloud, > since reading |ce| as /ke/ would feel strange.
Yet 'Celt', 'Celtic' etc. are invariably pronounced 'kelt', 'keltic' etc., at least when referring to language or supposed ethnicity. (The Glaswegian soccer team, however, is pronounced 'seltic' :) You'd have to get used to both |ce| = /ke/ and |ci| = /ki/ if you were to learn Welsh or either Irish or Scots Gaelic :)
> And writing it |che| or |que| would also be kind of artificial when > there is no regular sound change involved in /k/+/e/.
Agreed.
> In fact, it is common to write Sardinian with |k| (e.g. in two of my > dictionaries) for the same reason, although the currently preferred > spelling for /k/ seems to be |c| (and |ch|) before /e/ and /i/, e.g. > 'celu' or 'chelu' /kelu/ for < CAELUM 'sky, heaven'. Cf.: > www.ditzionariu.org.
In fact since Sardinian (like Terkunan) did not share in the palatalization which afflicted Vulgar Lain elsewhere, it would be more logical for Sardinian to retain the old Latin spelling with |c| = /k/ in all environments. Using |ch| in Sardinian 'chelu' is clearly a concession to Italians so that they do not mispronounce 'celu.'
> But still, I basically agree: |k| makes it look less typical Romance. >
It does.
>> In Acadon OTOH |k| has the value /kj/, which IMO is a little odd. > > Indeed.
Yes. IMHO if an auxlang with anything like global intentions (as opposed to just Amero-European intentions) wants to be taken seriously it has to have /k/ spelled as |k|. Indeed, the use of |c| varies so very greatly in natlangs that it is surely best avoided altogether in a language intended as a possible international auxlang. Thinks: how many different values are or have been given to |c| in natlangs? I can think of /g/, /k/, /tS/, /ts/, /s/, /dZ/, /c/ and /|/ (dental click). (I'm not including |ch| which would add a whole lot more :) -- Ray ================================== ray@carolandray.plus.com http://www.carolandray.plus.com ================================== Nid rhy hen neb i ddysgu. There's none too old to learn. [WELSH PROVERB]

Replies

Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>