Tonal conlangs (Re: Trial of the century?)
| From: | Herman Miller <hmiller@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Monday, January 18, 1999, 3:37 |
|---|
On Sun, 17 Jan 1999 02:49:13 +0000, John Fisher =
<john@...>
wrote:
>In message <36A12D25.CF36DFB4@...>, Carlos
>Thompson <chlewey@...> writes
>>Here in Hangkerimche:
>>
>>> 1. I didn't inhale.
>>
>>LIM_MA_ZE_PIN/KEN^HI~PAN~HA\
>
>Great! A conlang with tones! Off-hand, I can't think of any other that
>has been mentioned here... Unless I'm wrong?
Zirinka has tones (Z=EDr=ED:nk=E1, with the tone marks and vowel =
lengthening
mark, is a more correct romanization). I've mentioned it on the list
before, although I don't remember if I specifically commented on the =
tones.
There are four tones (high vs. low, and rising vs. falling), and there =
are
a number of minimal pairs of words only distinguished by tone or vowel
length. Examples:
j=FA: "to drink" vs. j=FB: "to attack"
k=E9 "about" vs. k=E8 "with"
r=E1: "fire" vs. r=E2: "family"
sai "peace" vs. s=E2i "tail"
x=E9 "to stop" vs. x=E9: "to see"
("=E1" high rising, "=E2" high falling, "a" low rising, "=E0" low =
falling)