Re: CHAT: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences)

Ference Valoczy wrote:
> > I've not heard Hungarian spoken that I remember, but they do have an
> > interesting orthography. How did they end up on {s} for /S/ and {sz} for
> > /s/? {zs} for /Z/ is quite cute, tho', and one just have to adore those
> > double acute accents!
>
>I don't know how s became [S], but the {z} after it shows it's not [S] but
>[s] (think sound of [z], then it makes sense, right?). {zs} makes sense
>too if you think, {z} shows that the {s} is voiced...
Well, the system _in it self_ is quite logical. Add in {c} and {cs} and you
start thinking that whoever thought it up was quite bright.

The weirdity is in the relation to other language that also use the Latin
alphabet. {s} is /s/ pretty much everywhere else. One could also think they
could've copied the Polish system that's quite similar except the opposit
values of {s} and {sz}.

Hm, what about re-spelling Hungarian like this:

{s}  = /s/
{z}  = /z/
{c}  = /ts/
{sz} = /S/
{zz} = /Z/
{cz} = /tS/

Sure, it'd look like Polish (except {zz} in place of {rz}), but it'd be
easier for us non-magyars to learn. Or even better, replace the three last
with {s^}, {z^} and {c^} (the circumflexes should be hac^eks of course).
Would save space by making words shorter!

                                                        Andreas

PS Now I OBVIOUSLY don't mean that your current orthography is bad or
anything like that. As I said, in itself it's quite nice. See my comments
above as what I might've done if I was the guy who designed the Hungarian
orthography.
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