Kyrgyz was Re: Zetowvu / Ezotwuv (new conlang)

On Monday 24 February 2003 03:54 pm, Joseph Fatula wrote:
> Well, I'm not John, but I know that /@/ is a regular vowel in several
> Central Asian languages, notably Kyrgyz, where it is spelled with a Y in
> transliterations.  So in the word "kyrgyz", there's a stressed schwa.
        I don't think that's quite correct. Mind you, my Kyrgyz dictionary isn't very
helpful on the point, but I'm pretty sure that Kyrgyz transliterated |y| is
the same as Russian |y|, that is, /1/ (barred-i). It might possibly be /I/,
although looking at the sound chart, this doesn't seem too likely; i.e., I
don't see any other lax vowels listed.
        From what I can make of it, Kyrgyz has the following vowels:
i y  1   u
 e 2    o
  E
   &
    a
        Just out of curiousity, does /E/ count as a tense or a lax vowel? The IPA
seems to think it is tense, while the North American charts make it lax.
        I have a friend who is studying Kyrgyz, so if it is important, I can ask her.
        :Peter
--
Oh what a tangled web they weave who try a new word to conceive!

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