Re: Gz^rod|in

Oh, the joys of buggy university email systems!
I thought I sent this to the group, but I think
it really only got sent to Nik.

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Adrian Morgan wrote:
> > $ = phi; ^ = lambda; # = pi; & = psi
> > [$], [^], [#], [&] = capital phi, lambda, pi,
psi
> > | after letter indicates diacritical mark.
> >
> > If there's no objections I'll continue...
>
> It's all just a matter of personal taste, there's
> no wrong or right; but is there any particular
> reason you can't use diacritics, like, say "ps"
> for psi (assuming that it represents the sound
> /ps/)?  Seeing symbols like that thrown around
> does tend to make it harder to read examples
> from your language.  Just my two cents.
The consensus seems to be that people will be
better able to advise me on representation once
they've seen how the letters are pronounced. OK.

I borrowed the Greek letters to represent
additional sounds (creating an alphabet of 29
letters) rather than to be faithful to their
original purpose. (Pinching letters is, of
course, an old trick - c.f. Middle English.) My
choice, however, was not random - I picked those
Greek letters which looked as though they
vaguely fit in with our own alphabet. By this
I'm referring to certain consistencies of form,
e.g. the first penstroke in all of our letters
begins near the top, never right at the bottom
(as in capital beta).

Lambda represents the vowel in "but" (i.e. the
one that I understand is represented by an
upside-down _v_ in the phonetic alphabet, hence
my suggestion of _^_ as an applicable rendering).
Double-lambda represents the vowel in _barn_ (in
South Australian speech), i.e. lengthened lambda.
Phi is equivalent to the Welsh _ll_, that is, an
unvoiced _l_. Pi is equivalent to the unvoiced
_th_ in _bath_, and Psi to the voiced _th_ in
_bathe_.

> Also, what kind of diacritical mark does | represent?
Form or meaning? Or both?

In my typed notes I use an underscore. If I
handwrite them, I use an upturned bowl over the
letter or a downturned bowl under the letter,
depending on the shape of the letter in
question. (Yet it's really the same mark.)

The meaning is to represent common sequences of
consonants, sometimes ones that cannot be
represented in any other way because of the rules
about doubled letters. Right here I'll just give
you the one that will let you to pronounce the
name of the language: _d|_ is equivalent to _nd_.
(Oh, and you'll need to know that _i_ is schwa.)

Right, now onto the complete phonetics. The reason
I don't use phonetic alphabets to explain this is
that I've never seen a description aimed at
South Australians (or Australians at all, for that
matter). I think word examples are good enough to
give people a rough mental image of how things are
pronounced, which is enough. (Since it's an
imaginary language anyway, you can always imagine
a dialect in which your perceptions are correct.)

Most sounds are based on South Australian speech.
In the following, square brackets indicate an
exception to this, namely a greater prominence of
the letter 'r' (c.f. Irish or American speech.)

Vowels
------

The vowel in ... is spelt ...
bat              a
bait             ay
bet              e
air              [eq, eer]
<schwa>          i
boat             iu
bite             iy
sound            iww
bot              o
gone             oo
oar              [oq, oor]
boot             u
bit              y
beat             yy
ear              [yyq, yyr]
but              lambda (herein ^)
barn             ^^, [^q, ^^r]
bottle           ll
burn             rr, [rrq]
book             ww

l, r and w become vowels when doubled.

Lambda at the beginning or end of a word may be
<schwa>. i at the beginning or end of a word may
be silent.

q and r represent similar sounds, but q always
follows a vowel - which it usually lengthens -
and is always followed by a consonant or end-of-
word. It cannot, in this capacity, follow a
single y.

y normally represents the sound in bit, and yy
the sound in beat. But at the end of a word, y
represents the sound normally represented by yy.
To facilitate the vowel in bit at the end of a
word, it is spelt yq.

There is also a consonantal y - see the section
on consonants.

Consonants
----------

Similar format to above

b             b
sh            c
d             d
f             f
hard g        g
h             h
zh            j
k             k
kh            kk
l             l
m             m, bb
n             n, dd
p             p
r             r
s             s
t             t
v             v
w             w
y             y
z             z
Welsh ll      phi
Voiced th     pi
Unvoiced th   psi

m and n are shorthands for bb and dd. Any word
spelt with one may legally be spelt with the
other.

A single y before a vowel is consonantal. A y|
(with diacritical mark) represents the consanant
y followed be the vowel y. yyy represents the
consonant y followed by the vowel yy. At the
end of a word, y|q takes the role of y| and
yy takes the role of yyy.

A h between two vowels is pronounced as a
consonantal y. This can be avoided by doubling
the h.

We have seen the diacritical mark used in y|. In
{b|, d|, k|, r|} it represents that letter double
followed by that same letter single. In {p|, t|},
p| is shorthand for mp and t| for nt. Triple
letters stand for the single followed by the
double.

Adrian.
--
http://www.netyp.com/member/dragon
http://www.flinders.edu.au