Re: CHAT: Reformed Latin-script writing for natlangs

Dan Wier wrote:

>One of my current projects is trying to see if the writing of some
>languages written in Latin script -- anything from Irish to
>Vietnamese -- could be improved, simplified, clarified, and what not.
>
>Vietnamese comes to mind, first of all.
(big snip)  BTW that "d" for [z] is southern dialect; it more [dz] in the
north-- tho that's no excuse, I know.

>Okay, I know this script was invented mostly by French priests, not
>experted linguists>
    The French can be blamed for much ;-), but in this case it was a
Portuguese priest (hence that nh and the circumflexes); I disremember his
name.  I've had the unsettling experience of studying dictionaries of Tetum
of Timor, one compiled by a Dutch missionary, the other by a Portuguese.  (A
recent one by an Australian linguist doesn't really clarify matters either).

(I am seriously thinking of readapting a Thai-Lao-Myanmar-Khmer-like SE
>Asian alphasyllabry for Vietnamese; wasn't that done in the past with
>the Cham [?] script?
>
Yes, but Cham at that time was probably a lot simpler and more suited to the
Indic script.  Clearly, Thai and Khmer, at the least, have had to develop
more vowel symbols than the original provides, so the resources are
presumably there. Worth a try, tho the Vietnamese may not welcome the
attempt.  The present system is a model of clarity compared to the Chinese
characters they used to use.

 Old Javanese, rather perversely, was written _as if_ it were Sanskrit--
long and short vowels were needlessly distinguished.  And they had to devise
something for schwa-- a big superscript circle IIRC (small supersc. circle
was "i" IIRC).