Re: Phonetics vs. Phonemics (was: apparently bizarre 'A's)

Mark J. Reed skrev:
 > On 2/25/06, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote:
 >
 >><http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/accents_spellingreform.htm>
 >
 >
 > Ooh, a very good page.  Nice overview of accent differences even if
 > you don't care about spelling reform.  Thanks!

Yes it *is* a good overview of accent differences, and that was the
primary reason I brought it to attention, but I couldn't help putting
in a plug for my spelling reform! :-)

R A Brown skrev:

>>> But your scheme is doomed to failure on both sides of the Pond with all
>>> those 'furrin' diacritics!
What ìs it with anglophones that they have diacritophobia?
I really do not understand this attitude; even Old English
is normally printed with macrons or acutes to indicate long
vowels, and that quintessential Englishman Tolkien gladly
employed diacritics both in his conlangs and when having
Old English masquerade as the language of the Rohirrim
-- though admittedly his lamatyáve wasn't typically English.

In fact English and Latin are the only languages written in
the Roman alphabet that don't use diacritics, and even Latin
*ought* to use some mark for vowel length.  Apparently the
Anglophone attitude is that diacritics are a no-no, but new
letter-shapes are OK.  This is very strange as it is contrary
to the attitude of practically all other societies using the
Roman alphabet.  Think of it, Ray: what would you think of
Greek or Welsh, or French, without diacritics?

FWIW I've considered introducing some characters from IPA
and Latin Extended-B as alternatives for the blocked vowels.

>> Yeah, diacritics are a no-no.  But what got me was the odd choice of
>> digraph in the basic Roman version of ʒ - cg?  gj?
>
>
> Yes - 'cg' denoted a sound similar to [dZ] in Old English IIRC and 'gj'
> would suggest something similar to me also.
In fact my ʒ - cg  gj *does* denote /dZ/ and not /Z/.  I only use Ezh in
lieu of insular G, and have updated the page to inform on this.

A thorough description of the consonants and the Gettysburg address in
NAS will be added ASAP.

--
/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)

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