Re: Romanized Orthography of My Conlang

Eric Christopherson wrote:
>
> > In fact, there is no best solution and it depends on the language
> > described. For example, SAMPA works very well with Chasma"o"cho, with
> > the small change in the use of /tS/ and /dZ/ for affricates, not
> > consonnant clusters, and the disturbing enough use of /2/ for barred-o
> > and /9/ for oe-ligature.
>
> The X-SAMPA standard (and I believe SAMPA as well) specify that /tS/ and
> /dZ/ are perfectly fine for the affricates, unless you need to be *very*
> specific about their being affricates and not clusters; it shouldn't be a
> problem unless Chasma"o"cho has them as phonemically distinct clusters. In
> that case, though, the X-SAMPA transcriptions for the affricates are /t_S/
> and /d_Z/.
>
        So that's good. Chasma"o"cho lacks the fricatives /S/ and /Z/ anyway.

> Also, did you notice that /2/ is the vowel used in <deux> (French 'two' for
> the non-Francophones), and /9/ is the vowel used in <neuf> (nine)? :)
        I *am* French :) . I took those sounds from my native language on
purpose :) . In fact, they are allophones and work the same as in
French: closed allophone on open syllables and open allophone on closed
syllables (your examples are good about that). In fact, I'm not sure we
can call them allophones in French, because they are in complementary
distribution, generally written the same way ({eu} most of the time,
sometimes {oe}), but the French speakers feel that they are not the same
sound (except in Montpellier where they have only /2/ in any place). The
situation is not the same with /e/, /E/ and /o/, /O/, as those are not
in complementary distribution (maybe /o/ and /O/ are, I'm not sure).
What are /2/ and /9/ then? Can I call them allophones even if the native
speaker feels they are not the same sound but they are still in
complementary distribution?

--
        Christophe Grandsire

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