Re: PIE Soundchanges - Grassman & Bartholomae

Henrik Theiling skrev:
> Hi!
>
> Benct Philip Jonsson writes:
>>By trial and error (and peeking in the SCHcompiler output module)
>>I've found that
>>
>>     (C) \3  >  C
>
>
> Note that using internal match numbers is definitely not supported and
> will probably break in future versions of the compiler.  So please
> stay with writing one rule for each consonant for now.
OK.

>>works for degemination and
>>
>>     C  >  _ _
>
>
> This is perfectly supported syntax.
>
>
>>works for gemination.  This probably is exploiting a bug ..
>
>
> Not a bug, but in internal structure.
OK, good to know.  The problem is that in the history of
English there occurs first gemination, then degemination
a couple of centuries later.  Unfortunately one cannot
skip around it since (a) Old English orthography would
be broken and (b) some rules relating to syllable structure
-- notably open syllable lengthening -- would break.
I suppose for the time being a C: notation might work,
but as I said it wouldn't work on geminates arising
through syncope.

> I will take a note that matching geminates should be supported, or
> more generally, Perl regexp numbers should be supported and properly
> renumbered.
Thanks.  Another idea, allowing for rules to be written more
like phonological rules are usually written would be to support
index numbers, so that one could for instance

     C{1}C{2}  >  C{2}C{2}

Surely equivalent to

     (C)(C)  >  $2$2

but more like the phonologists' way of writing it with
subscript numbers.  I suppose the two ways of writing
things might complement rather than exclude each other.
People more at home with standard phonological notation
than with Perl regexp syntax would have an easier time
making sense of an SCH file, but that might be a too
small advantage to invest the time and work for implementing
the alternative notation.  I really wish I could actually
help with the implementation rather than just coming with
more or less daft suggestions... :-)

--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

    "Maybe" is a strange word.  When mum or dad says it
    it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it
    means "no"!

                            (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7)