Re: That pesky H again (was: varia)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Raymond Brown
> Sent: Friday, February 4, 2000 1:28 PM
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: That pesky H again (was: varia)
> >I did not know this.  Are you saying that the "(" mark did not in
> >fact indicate an initial [h]?
>
> I don't know exactly what Philip means, but I say that "(" marked initial
> [h], but not initial /h/
>
> I think the ancient Greeks were showing an intuitive awareness of the
> function of [h] in their language when they chose to mark it with a
> diacritic rather than a separate letter.  It seems to me to more simply
> explain (1) many features of the language if [h] is regarded as a prosody
> rather than a phoneme in ancient Greek, cf the word for "hair":
>
>        H
> Nom: trik-s  --> thriks
>
>        H
> Gen. trik-os  --> trikhos
>
> and the verb "to have"
>
>        H
> pres. eko:   --> ekho:  (I have)
>
>        H
> fut.  ekso:  --> hekso: (I shall have)
>
> A lot of irregularities suddenly disappear  :)
Ah... interesting. I've been wondering, when ( is written over the second
vowel of a diphthong, such as in e(i-, is the [h] pronounced before the
first vowel, or the second? (i.e. [hei] or [he:] vs. [ehi])

Also, I find the idea of suprasegmental aspiration interesting. But is there
really such a thing as an aspirated vowel? I've had an idea to make final
vowel+h become an aspirated vowel, which would then aspirate the previous
consonant but lose aspiration on the vowel:

        H
tah -> ta: -> tha:


Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo suHnus
raccoon@elknet.net