Re: Featural code based on the Latin alphabet

Quoting Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>:

> 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.
And thereby the competition for the 2003 Andreas Award for the Ugliest
Orthography would appear to be settled.

Question: isn't reduplicating the whole polygraph a bit much to indicate vowel
length? Redublicating the i/e/a would seem to be sufficient.

Also, couldn't you let nasals and approximants be voiced by default? That
would allow you to skip alot of "v"s. Actual voiceless nasals and approximants
could be be indicated by -v, for "voiceless" (not that it doesn't indicate
voiceless sounds in certain languages too).

                                                          Andreas

Reply