CONLANG Digest - English orthograph[ies]

> From:    "Carlos Eugenio Thompson (EDC)" <EDCCET@...>
> Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ping=21_=C9nglis=B4_Artspellin?=
>
> Well, I've tried to post this before but some how my postings are not
> reaching to Brown...
>
> I've webified my proposal of alternative English spelling at
> http://members.tripod.com/chlewey/inglis.html
>
> It uses Thryomanes font and looks okay while editing (even the HTML) on
Word
> but doesn't appear quite okay with MSIE and special characters doesn't
show
> in Netscape.  Anyhow, those who want to look at and comment, please do.
It's interesting!  I need to get the pages on mine up (both the crazy,
full-of-new-letters one and the more sane full-of-diacritics one).

> From:    Carlos Thompson <chlewey@...>
> Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Help_wanted:_=C9nglis=B4_spellin=2C?=
>
> Well.
>
> Î'v bén sendin, some postin`s on a revîsd, non-ASCII, Énglis´ spellin`
> refo,rm.  Î hav some problems wiþ accents, mainly becås î'm not a nativ
> Énglis´ spêk,r and ðe fonètic gides î hav in hand ár Spanis´-Énglis´
> dict`,naris cùv,rin´ mainly Brittis´ Énglis´.
Hmm.
"Î've bin sending sòme pôstings on à rêvîšd, non-ASCII, Ênglish spelling
rêform.  Î have sòme problèmš wiþ accents, mainly bêcàuše Î'm not à nâtive
Ênglish spêaker and thè phònetic gîdeš Î have in hand är Spanish-Ênglish
dicshònairyš còvering mainly British Ênglish."

I feel really matres lectiones...  I brought in only one "new" letter
(thorn, leaving "th" in for edh).  The circumflexes would ideally be macrons
but of course I can't do that in email.

> Î want my spellin` tó be as accent free as possible (not havin`
> ó,n-simb,l-ó,n-sound in my gouls, it helps).
Yup.

> Î g`nô ðat mény sounds have ó,n-ó,n correspòndanç, like Brittis´ /@U/ vs
> Amèrican /ow/, h`ic´ ár îð,r "o", "ô" or "ou" in my sistem.  Î'm mainly
> worrid h`en suc´ correspòndanç is brok,n.
"g`nô"?  That yogh is silent, right?  Hmm...


> From:    Marcus Smith <smithma@...>
> Subject: Re: more English orthography
>
> At 5/13/00 04:28 AM -0400, you wrote:
>
> >OK.  My dialect, _phonemically_, has the vowels of:
> >
> >  bot, bait, bat, bet, beet, bit, bite, but, boat, book, boy, bout, boot,
> >beaut, -ble, Bert
>
> I have a phonemic contrast between syllabic /n/ and consonental /n/:
> lightening
> [lait.n.IN] vs. lightning [lait.nIN].
Yes, I forgot to put in the syllabic nasals. (bottom, button)

> I guess it's a matter of preference whether you want to consider schwa a
> phoneme or not.  I can't think of a way to get any other pronunciation for
it
> in "comma."
Schwa is a phoneme, usually allophonous with the /^/ or the /V/ or however
you spell it.

> From:    Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
> Subject: Re: more English orthography
>
> >OK.  My dialect, _phonemically_, has the vowels of:
> >
> >  bot, bait, bat, bet, beet, bit, bite, but, boat, book, boy, bout, boot,
> >beaut, -ble, Bert
> >
> >It also has an 'o' that I think of as different though it only appears
> >before r or in foreign words:  bore. (Phonemically doesn't conflict with
> >"boat" AFAICT)
[snip]
> >How many on this list, (with American accents/dialects) does this _not_
map
> >to their phoneme inventory?  (I make _no_ prescription to the phonetic
> >values of these sounds.)
>
> In my dialect, "bought" is distinct from "bot".
Yes!  I really discovered this the other day, showing my system to someone
RL.  I was writing out "The quick brown fox" sentence and he's like "You use
the same vowel in _dog_ as in _fox_?"  I know the difference is there but I
can't hardly even pronounce his other vowel.

> Actually, I should say that
> "caught" [kQt] is distinct from "cot" [kAt], since I really don't know the
> correct pronunciation of "bot" (I've assumed that it rhymes with "cot". I
> suppose you'd have to ask an entomologist.)
Well, I was thinking "bot" as short for "robot".  (Which also gave me a
weird shock, as I was looking it up in the dictionaries.  The dictionaries I
checked pronounced it as /"row b@t/ or /"ro b@t/ (with long o and short o
respectively, not sure of the IPA).  Of course, I've never heard either of
those, it's always /"row bat/ (with the vowel.. erm, in 'cot' and 'caught')
;p


> >Are there too many sounds?  Not enough?  Which ones are missing/extra?
>
> Even with the same sounds, there are differences between dialects. Some
> American dialects distinguish words that I don't (merry, marry, Mary), and
> others make fewer distinctions (pin = pen).
Mmm.  Mary, merry are the same around here (or at least for me).


     *Muke!

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