Re: vowel scheme for new language

Carlos Thompson wrote:
>I somehow like unbalanced systems (but never as Dunn's proposals.
>The system used in Hangkerimce is:
>  i   u
>  E
>      A
>With many allophonies, and shifts... (for example, an <a> near a
>stressed <u> would become a rounded [Q] or [O], but near a stressed
><i> would become [a] or [&]).
Of course, such unbalanced systems are rare, but I have seen the
above system in several natlangs in N.America. I suppose the
Amerindian languages serve as your inspiration, right? - being that
Hangkerimce is basically Amerindian in a alternative universe. 8-)

The most unblanced system I have seen in a natlang comes from
Marshalese from the Marshal islands (Micronesia). It looks like:

     i
        @
        V
        a

This is soooo unbalanced, I'm amazed that the Marshalese don't mix
the vowels up in their speech.

>
>Some othe posibility I've playing around lately
>  i  1  M
>   e
>    E   V
>     a
>where M stands for unrounded u and 1 for middle i (i barred in
IPA).
>
Hmmm... no rounded vowels. Pretty interesting!! Actually, it is only
slightly unbalanced if you think about it. The only thing that is
missing is the feature of rounding. I once toyed with a similar
idea, but with a much smaller inventory (and even more balanced):
     i     M
        a

>Or an eight system like
>  i   M,u
>   E  V,O
>      A,Q
>where Q is the rounded A.
This kinda reminds me of Vietnamese. Probably because of the
parallel distinction between rounded and unrounded back vowels.
Actually, if you think about it, this isn't unbalanced at all. IMHO,
it is quite balanced. This system is what you call a quadrangular
system since it has the same number of front unrounded vowels as
back rounded vowels and at the same time having two low vowels
(rather than just one).
>
>Anyhow, English is not completely balanced.
>
Yeah, English vowels need some sobering up. 8-)

-kristian- 8-)