Pirdänë: a new language

On Wed, 17 Jan 2001 19:29:46 EST, Elliott Lash <AL260@...> wrote:

> Pirdänë is a new language I've been working on for around four days now.
I like the sound of the words. Initial voiced fricatives, especially in
combination with rhotics or something else, have always attracted me. As do
final schwa sounds. Jolly good :)

Anyway, I mostly wanted to help you out with the SAMPA, since you weren't
always sure how to transcribe :)

>dentals:
>   /D/ dh                    /d/ d
>   /0/ th (is this right?)  /t/ t
"/T/ th" is today's standard.

>bilabials:
>   /v/ v                    /b/ b
>   /f/ f                    /p/ p
Strictly speaking, /v/ and /f/ are labio-dentals. If you do mean bilabial
fricatives (as in Spanish, for example), its /P/ and /B/.

>velars:
>   /G/ (hm, this doesn't look quite right either) gh
>   /g/ g
>   /k/ k
>   /X/ ch (i'm not sure this is gonna be in)
I think /G/ is correct for 'gh'. /x/ is the standard I've usually seen for
the unvoiced velar fric.

>spirants/resonants (what's the correct name these days)
Sibilants? (= "fricatives in the dental - post-alveolar range", would be
the definition, AFAIK)

>    /j/ j
>    /w/ u/w (i'm not quite sure)
If you want to be technical, those are 'semi-vowels', and thus usually not
grouped with sibilants or other fricatives.

>  and because i'm not sure where to put'em:
>    /tS/ ç (c-cedille)
>    /dZ/ gy
Those are called affricates, a "transition from stops to fricatives" (would
probably be the definition). Grouping them with the sibilants is just fine,
I guess.

>vowels:
>   /?/ ö  (this is a front o, like french soeur)
Standard SAMPA for the vowel in 'soeur' is /9/. /?/ would be a glottal stop.

>   /a/ a
Personally, I have no idea what SAMPA /a/ is; /A/ is the typical 'a', as in
Spanish, for instance. If anyone can tell me, I'd love to hear :)

>Some vocab, just to give you a taste:
>MORE LATER ......... Tell me what you think
Cool vocab, keep it up :)

Óskar