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Re: English notation/conlang scripts

From:Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Date:Saturday, June 30, 2001, 13:24
From: "O'Connell James" <jamestomas2@...>
> One thing I did want to ask though was who here, when > using their conlang, works first in the lang's native > script as opposed to the Roman alpha..
I generally do that, when I can [read: when not using the computer]. However I've found I tend to exclude things that tend not to be writable in the script. For example, Hadwan (for which I generally work in the regular Latin alphabet now) has a consonant /j/ and a vowel /i(:)/ which, not necessarily being related [/j/ sometimes from */G/, cf. day ~ Tag, and /i(:)/ sometimes from /e(:)/] sometimes appear together; but they're written with the same letter, and Hadwan writing doesn't generally double consonants. Which makes some words horribly difficult to write... /"ji:n/ "I do/am doing X" /"In/ "in" /"jIru:/ "I am supporting X" /i:"jajen/ "I have lost X" /"mIji:/ "me (locative)" I didn't have oppositions like this when I worked in the native script. How'm I supposed to spell them? I suspect, possibly, "in, in, iru, iiaien, mii", but I'm not sure. As for working _in_ a language's script, I found I tended to things that weren't otherwise obvious. I had a language which voiced sounds intervocalically, aspirated stops next to other stops, and nasalized them initially. I got by with eight letters for all of [p_h], [t_h], [k_h], [Z], [S], [p], [t], [k], [m], [b], [d], [n], [g], [N], /E/, /A/, /u/, and /i/. I had only started out with /p/, /t/, /k/, and /S/ letters and the other changes followed; now it's easier to work in the native because correspondences are easier to see than they would be in a phonetic transliteration, and a phonemic transliteration would be less intuitive. For me, anyway. ;p *Muke!

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O'Connell James <jamestomas2@...>