Re: Lin & BrSc: orthography & phonology

At 7:57 PM +0100 04/01/02, Raymond Brown wrote:
>So, I ask three questions:
>1. Am I right to avoid the constant use of the shift-key (unlike Lin and
>X-SAMPA) ?
I agree with this avoidance for the reasons you stated.

>2. Is there any real objection to using not only the {2} and {4} of
>texters, but also the other digit symbols to denote sound?
I have no personal objection to using numerals in this way. I once
created an electronic version of the Chemehuevi lexicon (Press 1980),
and I used <7> for glottal stop, which Press (1980) represented with
<?>. (It created fewer hassles in doing electronic searches, since I
didn't have to include an escape character to tell the search utility
that I really meant <?> and not some operator.) I believe this
mapping was also used among Mayan field linguists. I've also seen <9>
used for X-SAMPA /?\/ in some transliterations of Arabic. I have used
<3> to represent X-SAMPA /G/; it was meant to remind me of <yogh>.

>3. Is there any real reason not to use at least some of the
>non-alphanumeric symbols?
Well, many of these characters are only accessible through the shift
key, so the same objections would hold as for the use of capitals as
separate characters. In principle they're fine, but they might slow
down text entry.

>As to the phonology, I cannot indulge in Srikanth's use of a wide range of
>phonemes which include sounds that many will find difficult to keep
>distinct since, like Speedwords, BrSc is intended to be a potential IAL
>(even tho in all likelihood it'll never actually be one).  But if I had
>Srikanth's freedom to use virtually anything, I'm sure I'd had at least one
>series of clicks there somewhere  ;)
>
>If the range of symbols can be extended, then probably the obvious thing is
>to revive the syllabary idea.  Lin, if you recall, gives syllabic values to
>the various sets of brackets and to {'} and {`}, but otherwise the values
>of the other constant symbols are phonemic.
>
>Comments?
Well, I still like my vowel harmony scheme, which would enable each
consonant symbol to represent a syllable :-). But it doesn't seem to
fit BrSc. That's the way it goes.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga                  Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

Man deth swa he byth thonne he mot swa he wile.
'A man does as he is when he can do what he wants.'

- Old English Proverb

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