Re: Q & X

On 9 Jan, Tero Vilkesalo wrote:

>Hi to all!
>
>I am new on the list. I followed your discussion here a little in the
summer
>and then again in december. This really is a most interesting forum!
Welcome!

<snip>

>And now to a real question. Which sounds do you write with the letter Q or
X
>in your a priori conlangs with Latin alphabet
    Well, in my conlang, rtemmu, I use "x" to represent /x/, a voiceless
velar
fricative (Not very imaginative, I guess).
    I don't use "q" for anything. For /S/, I follow the English convention
of  writing "sh".
Considering that rtemmu also uses "s" and "h", I somtimes run into an
ambiguity (in the _written_ lang), where at first glance, it may not be
obvious
whether "sh" is supposed to be /S/ or /s/ followed by /h/. For example:

    "dshuhvaku"  (= chop).  The  "sh" is  /S/.  But   "sdihshe"  breaks down
into

    "sdihs"  (= fire),  with /s/ on the end, and "he" (= with respect to),
                   beginning with /h/.

    Like many natlangs, knowing the lang's structure and vocabulary help
to distinguish the uses. One doesn't have to necessarily clear up all the
ambiguities in a conlang. IMHO, leaving them in can give the lang a "lived
in" feel.


Dan Sulani

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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.