Re: X-X-SAMPA (Keeping the Standard)

> Date:         Wed, 26 Dec 2001 22:25:23 +0100
> From: Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>
>
> --- In conlang@y..., Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@D...> wrote:
>
> > Well, according to the PDF file that's also linked from my page, - is
> > a separator, and * is a general purpose escape.
> >
> > There's an example of - used to mark non-affricateness, like /at-sign/
> > for @, and I don't think it'll be hard to come up with other examples
> > where it's useful in that meaning. So that's a no-go, in my opinion.
>
> Well, /{t.sajn/ would work just as well with a syllable deliminator.  I
> don't know about your other examples.
Oh well. The use of the period as a syllable deliminator isn't shown
in the list in the PDF file, so I didn't think it was official --- but
it's on the IPA chart, I see now.

Anyway, wanting to separate two symbols doesn't necessarily imply a
syllable break. For instance, you might want to contrast /i-ts/ (with
an affricate) and /it-s/ (with separate consonants).

> > I think , is held back as general punctuation --- some authors don't
> > like to use / / to set off IPA notation, but prefer italics, so plain
> > parentheses, comma and period should unambiguously terminate a string
> > of X-SAMPA code. But again, if you do use / /, there's no conflict.
>
> Your explanation would make sense if X-SAMPA didn't already use /./,
> /:/, /!/, /?/.   =P
See above for the period. (Which is however still unambiguous, because
a syllable break won't occur at the end of a word). The other symbols
will be problems as well if you're using real IPA, so presumably
people would have learned to avoid putting them right after IPA words
--- but , isn't used in IPA, so using it in X-SAMPA would create new
ambiguities.

> As for /1 }/, I just noticed we still have /i* u*/ available.
Not if you want to use * for diacritics --- otherwise, /i*t/ could be
either a breathy-voiced /i/ or /1t/.

> Any other opinions?
Lots.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)