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Featural code based on the Latin alphabet

From:Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>
Date:Tuesday, September 9, 2003, 9:59
As a featural code is the most unambiguous and flexible manner of
representing pronunciation, and the Latin alphabet is universally available
on a simple computer keyboard, it has occurred to me that the most logical
writing system possible is to use the Latin alphabet as a featural code. I
would therefore like to propose such a code.

1: Consonants
1.1: Articulation
t       stop (since t is in many languages the most common stop, the
prototype       of the articulation)
h       fricative (because as the most open of fricatives it is the
purest  example of this articulation, and the letter is used in
European        orthographies to convert stops to fricatives)
n       nasal (not only does it represent a common nasal sound, but it is
the     initial letter of nasal)
w       approximant (all the other letters representing approximants are
used    elsewhere).
1.2: Place
By default, consonants are alveolar, since this is the place of
articulation of t and n, the symbols for stop and nasal, and will therefore
minimise learning effort. Other points of articulation are as follows.
b       bilabial (the letter normally represents a bilabial sound, and
indeed,         is the initial letter of bilabial)
f       labiodental (v was needed elsewhere)
d       dental (the inital letter of dental, and the nearest unused letter to
a       dental articulation)
x       post-alveolar (represents [S] in Spanish)
r       retroflex (not only does it stand for retroflex, but Indic
languages       frequently have retroflex rs)
c       palatal (used for a palatal stop in many conlangers' orthographies).
k       velar (the alternative, g, is too easily confused with q)
q       glottal.
1.3: Lateralisation
l       indicates a lateral (since it both represents a laterals in its
most    common uses, and is the initial letter of lateral).
1.4: Voicing
Consonants are by default voiceless. Voicing is indicated by
v       since this is both a voiced consonant and the initial of voice.

2: Vowels
2.1: Height
i       high
e       mid
a       low (all based on their normal pronunciation)
2.2: Backness
Vowels are by default front unless otherwise indicated by
y       central (since it is often used to indicate a high central vowel)
u       back (since u represents the furthest back vowel in most languages.
2.3: Rounding
Vowels are by default unrounded, unless indicated by
o       since o not only represents a rounded vowel, but it is round.
2.4: Length
Vowels are by default short. Long vowels are represented by reduplication.

Some work is still needed on this, and any suggestions are welcome, but as
you can see, we can already replace the chaos of English orthography with
the simple, logical

tiu tbvii euowv nveuot tiu tbvii, hdvat ihv hdvey tkwbvehthxeynv:
hqwbvehdvewv it ihv nveuoeuotbvwlvewv inv hdvey nbvainvtv tiu hiuhfey hdvey
hwlinkvhv anvtv awveuowbs euohfv aiuotwveetxvhxviuh hfeuowvtwxviuiunv,
euowr tiu teetk auauwvnbvhv akvenvht a hii euohfv twviutbeywlhv anvtv tbvai
euotbeoueouhvinkv envtv hdvenbv.

Pete

Replies

Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>
Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>
Joe <joe@...>
Joe <joe@...>
JS Bangs <jaspax@...>
Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>
Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>