Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

CONLANG Digest - English orthograph[ies]

From:Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 16, 2000, 14:49
> 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! _____________________________________________ NetZero - Defenders of the Free World Click here for FREE Internet Access and Email http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html