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

On 31.7.2007 Douglas Koller wrote:
> > The emphatic consonants are:
> > >
> > > /q/, /t_?\/, /d_?\/, /s_?\/, /D_?\/, /?\/, /X\/, /r/,
> > > sometimes
> /l/.
IIRC /l_e/ occurs only in the word Allah, i.e. 'God'.

> > > Maybe /G/, too. Nah, maybe not.
NAFAIK.

> Well, *that* explains Koran/Quran, and
> mujahideen/mujahedeen & Hizbullah/Hezbollah (if "h" is
> /X\/), but not Muhammad/Mohammed.
Some of those spellings reflect Persian realizations of the
vowel spellings:

: {a}   ==  /&/
: {a:}  ==  /A/
: {i}   ==  /e/
: {i:}  ==  /i/
: {u}   ==  /o/
: {u:}  ==  /u/

With /&/ being variously Latinized as _a_ or _e_.

Also there are different dialects of Arabic with different
mappings. I heard [u\] appears in Syrian Arabic, giving
Syrians an advantage when learning Swedish! :-) Also IIRC
Moroccan Arabic essentially has the classical system intact.

AFMOC Kijeb has a three vowel system without quantity
distinctions which first grows to a nine vowel system thru
umlaut processes and merger of unstressed vowels, and then
again shrinks to a five or six vowel system through further
mergers (/o/ > /Q/; /e/, /u\/ > /i\/; /@/ > /6/; /i\/ > /i/)
in stressed vowels and vowel height harmony. Some dialects
also develop long vowels through loss of /j w h G/ and front
rounded vowels through vowel frontness harmony.

/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No man forgets his original trade: the rights of
nations and of kings sink into questions of grammar,
if grammarians discuss them.
-Dr. Samuel Johnson (1707 - 1784)