Re: help! phonology...

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000, Roger Mills wrote:

> Irina Rempt wrote:
>
> >On Mon, 23 Oct 2000, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> >
> >> I was thinking that "c" wouldn't suggest /c/ to the average reader...
> >
> >I may not be an average reader, but it does suggest /k/ to me. But
> >then that's what I use <c> for in Valdyan, and I was brought up on
> >the Latin pronunciation that has /kajsar/ for "Caesar".>
>
> Same here, but "c" is almost always a problem, and perhaps ought to be
> banished ;-).   Whenever I see "c" in a con- or natlang, I immediately look
> around for an explanation.   Does it mean Romance /k ~ s/, Slavic and
> American Indianist /ts/, Sanskrit/Indonesian/Kash /tS/, IPA palatal stop
> (which I've never figured out)....? etc. etc.
<nodnod>  I hate being obliged to use "c".  I tend to default to /tS/
from what little Italian I've seen if it isn't suggestive of Latin (in
which case I default to /k/).  I'm not really sure that "tj" or something
else is better for /c/, though.  (I think "sj" for /C/ will be okay--at
least, I was already using "sj," albeit for something else, and
non-conlangers seemed okay with it.)  I wish I had better
alternatives.

YHL