Re: help! phonology...

On Mon, 23 Oct 2000, jesse stephen bangs wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Oct 2000, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> Yoon, you've confused the symbols / / with [ ].  The brackets [ ] are used
> for *phonetic* IPA transcriptions, while the slashes / / are used with
> *phonemic* transcriptions.  So you meant to say "/b/ manifests as [p] in
> word-final position, [b] elsewhere."
Apologies--even in non-directional situations I tend to get pairs of
things confused with each other.  :-(

> Certainly.  The set /t d/ is pretty universal and I don't know of one
> without the other, but otherwise you've obeyed typology
> certainly.  Studies have shown that in languages with only one bilabial
> stop, the bilabial stop is always [b], and in languages with only one
> velar stop, that stop is [k].  (Standard caveats about statistical nature
> of typology apply.)  So you're great.  Many languages also have stops
> without corresponding fricatives or vice versa--witness English /T D/
> without any corresponding stops.  I think your scheme is quite natural and
> acceptable.
Thanks for the input.  And here I was having angst over aesthetic
preferences....


> > contemplating using these Romanizations:
> >
> > tj for /c/
> > sj for /C/
>
> Ick.  Remind me, why not use {c} for /c/ and {k} for /k/?
I *am* using {k} for /k/.  I guess I could use {c}, it just looks very
strange to me.  <shaking head>  My problem is that a) Chevraqis is used
in the names in a fantasy novel that I someday mean to submit for
publication and b) since the thing has been in drafts for the past 7
years, I've gotten used to a certain "look" in the names.  I may just
have to get used to it.  Grr.  I hate Roman transcriptions.  I also hate
the fact that when I first devised the sound-set for Chevraqis I went
about it all wrong and it was too closely tied to English and Korean (the
only sound-sets I felt familiar enough with to deal with other than
French, which I didn't want to use).

I was thinking that "c" wouldn't suggest /c/ to the average reader...but
then again, the average reader picks his/her own pronunciation for Weird
Fantasy Names, so I may as well follow IPA.  Thanks!

YHL