Re: Rotokas (was: California Cheeseburger)

Quoting Racsko Tamas <tracsko@...>:

> On 21 Jun 2004 Andreas Johansson <andjo@FR...> wrote:
>
> > I don't know if there's a such thing as general Germanic spelling
> > conventions, but indeed, "web" suggests a long vowel and "webb" a short
> > one according to Swedish spelling habits.
>
>   I meant here that almost every Germanic orthography uses consonant
> doubling to signify that preceeding (stressed) vowel is short.
Personally, I perceive a fairly basic difference 'tween, say, the systems of
English and Swedish in this regard; the former relies on orthorgaphically closed
syllables to indicate short vowels, while the later doubles consonants also
finally to indicate a preceeding short vowel. Hence _web_ suggests a short (lax)
vowel in English and a long one in Swedish.

(For added trouble, there's a rival analysis of Swedish, on this list championed
by BP, that holds that vocalic length in Swedish is allophonic, being triggered
by consonant length, which would mean that doubled consonants indicate long
consonants instead. This jars with my native perception; the solution would seem
to be that various 'lects have different phonemic systems that yield quite
similar phonetic results.)

> > I only meant to cast doubt on your apparent claim that languages either
> > assimilate loans fully orthographically, or not at all.
>
>   I do not want to insist on this thread since I insulted someone
> against my wishes.
My skin is fairly thick. I doubt you gonna manage to offend me unless you try.

> My claim was a reflection on a statement that
> Rotokas spelling is designed to be highly phonematic. With the
> assumption of this supposed spelling design, I think my claim is
> probable.
What little I've seen of Rotokas orthography on this thread does not seem to
suggest that it is highly phonematic. But if you did not mean to imply that
partial orthographic adaption is unknown or next to unknown, we're not in
disagreement.

                                                    Andreas