Re: USAGE: Translation challenge: GBS

"Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...> wrote:
>
> Quoting Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>:
>
> > --- In conlang@y..., Dennis Paul Himes <himes@C...> wrote:
> > > John Cowan <jcowan@R...> wrote:
> >
> > > > Chang at leisure was superior to Lynch in his rouge, munching a
> > lozenge
> >
> > > Change at lezhre wuz soopeerreeer too Linch in hiz roozh, munchenge a
> > loznj
> >
> > Ouch!  Words like soopeerreeer kinda defy the purpose of a reformed
> > orthography.  =P
    Actually, I think one of the cool things about Vermont Revised Spelling
is that spellings like that occasionally pop up.  To each his own, of
course.  (In some variations of the spelling the first E in "soopeerreeer"
has a macron or an acute accent.)

> > Also, I find it weird that he tries to render munching as /mVntSi:N/.
> > I think we've had this discussion before on this list...  to me, the
> > ending -ing clearly contains a short /I/ phoneMe (which may be
> > realized by some as a tensed /i/, but definitely not long).
>
> /N/ in my dialect makes all front vowels immediately preceding it
> tense, so I would have to agree with the vowel quality he
> used.  However, I didn't sense that he was asserting any kind of
> vowel length in English; I thought he was invoking the standard
> device of 'silent <e>' as a marker of historically long vowels
> (i.e., not *currently* long vowels).
    Correct.  VRS uses a final silent E to mark "long" vowels in a
non-final vowel in a final syllable, with "long" defined as it has been
traditionally.  The relevant dialect is that of the Republic of Vermont in
the late 22nd century, a dialect which is suspiciously similar to what I
speak now.  I never realized that anyone pronounced "-ing" with an /I/
until I started reading this list.

    Note: the VRS webpage, http://home.cshore.com/himes/rbweb/vrs.htm, is a
bit out of date, but basically correct.

 ===========================================================================

                Denniss Poll Himze    <>    himes@cshore.com
                   http://home.cshore.com/himes/dennis.htm

Disclaimmer: "Troo, y tolk uv dremze; wich ar dha chiljrin uv an idle brane,
beegot uv nuththenge but vane fantucee; wich iz az thin uv substuns az dhe
are."                        - Roammeeo & Juuleeet, Act I Cene iv Vers 96-99