Re: Uusisuom (phonemic????)

John Cowan sikayal:

> > Single letters are shown by enclosing them between < > - but as these may
> > be misinterpreted if reading mail through a browser, many (including
> > myself) prefer to use { }.
>
> I have never understood what is wrong with quotation marks: the forms "a"
> and 'a' far more natural to me than either <a> or {a}.
The marks < a > and {a} aren't meant to be natural.  They're the formal
symbols that linguists use to indicate orthographies.  I generally use
quotes when I'm just mentioning a word casually, or to give a gloss.
Thus, the Yivríndil word for 'the wolf' is [nI'BEl], spelled {niwel}.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton