Re: Brr (was: Re: A few questions about linguistics concerning my new project)

From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>

> Yeah, Arabic was the first thing I thought of, too.  Classical Arabic
> had, IIRC, a 3-quality x 2-quantity system: a, a:, i, i:, u, u:.  MSA
> still has that structure but I think the quantitative distinctions
> have been replaced by qualitative ones.
Hence, "at least in theory."

> Also, there seems to be a
> mapping at work in some borrowings that turns short i and u into e and
> o, respectively.
IIRC, I read somewhere that the Italian "tavola" has made it into Arabic, which
already has a word for "table." Maybe it lends an exotic air, like "al fresco"
in English; or maybe it designates a specific kind of table, like "rijsttafel"
in English; or maybe it just made it into Arabic just 'cause. Too, that
romanizations offer Koran/Quran, mujahideen/mujahedeen, Hizbullah/Hezbollah,
heck Muhammad/Mohammed, would seem to indicate that the pure a-i-u system has a
degree of flexibility within it, as you mentioned above, even with indigenous
words.

Kou