Re: Phonology/orthography sketch

Wow this is complicated stuff ;-)

On Thu, 29 May 2008 09:04:15 +0200, Lars Mathiesen <thorinn@...>
wrote:

>2008/5/28, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>:
>> Phonetically there exists [H] or [j\_w] as
>> allophones of /j/ next to a rounded vowel or
>> /w/, and of /w/ next to /i/. The writing system
>> writes this allophonic sound with _u_ in spite
>> of its occurrence being wholly conditioned by
>> adjacent sounds: a word spelled _uintou_ could
>> only be /wintoj/; a spelling _wintoi_ could not
>> be a distinct word, but only an unusual,
>> although phonemically more 'correct', spelling of
>> the same word. Similarly _au_ or _eu_ could
>> never occur without a following conditioning _i
>> u w o_; a spelling _euor_ would always represent
>> /ejor/ and might be derived from a word _ei_.
>> Similarly _euir_ would be /ewir/, possibly
>> derived from an _ew_.
>
>What happens if you have both /i/ and a rounded vowel next to these
>approximants? Do you get [iju] or [iHu], [uwi] or [uHi], and so on?
>
>Are there any contexts where this could cause the difference between
>//i// and //w// to be neutralized?
>
>(If /y/ would trigger [w] > [H] like /i/ does, we'd have tuut [tHyt]
>for both //tu"yt// and //ti"yt//, and maybe tuut [tyHt] for //t"yut//
>and //t"yit//).
>
>Lars