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Yasaro writing

From:Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
Date:Saturday, July 22, 2006, 21:49
I'm still trying to figure out the history of sound changes in the
Yasaro language, but I think I have enough to go on for developing the
Yasaro writing system. I added a brief description on Yasaro writing to
the FrathWiki page (http://wiki.frath.net/Yasaro) going over some of the
features of Yasaro spelling based on these historical sound changes. One
thing I'm wondering: are the angle brackets I used on that page 〈...〉
the correct characters for a transcription of the way words are written?
Do they show up correctly in various browsers?

Here's the contents of the text I added to the wiki page:

Yasaro is written using the Lelimi script (Yasaro lelímī "alphabet"),
which is closely related to the Vlika script. The spelling of native
Yasaro words is largely based on the pronunciation of an earlier stage
of the language, Middle Yasaro, while retaining some features of Old
Yasaro pronunciation. Borrowed words are spelled in various ways
depending on when the words were borrowed and from which language.

Long vowels in modern Yasaro were still diphthongs in the Middle Yasaro
period when the spelling conventions were established, so for instance
/vǐ:la/ "reed organ" is spelled 〈veilá〉, and /čěte:/ "ice" is spelled
〈tletéu〉. The spelling of /č/ is especially variable; it developed
from various consonant clusters such as /tl/ and /kr/, as well as /k/
before /i/. (Most occurrences of /ki/ in modern Yasaro are from /ke/ in
Old Yasaro.) Yasaro spelling also preserves syllable-final consonants
which were lost, as in the words /čâ:ŋa/ 〈krávga〉 "to eat" and /mǐra/
〈birás〉 "sun". Double consonants such as 〈ss〉 and 〈hh〉 represent
lengthened consonants in earlier versions of the language which are
pronounced as single consonants in the modern language. The name of the
language itself has one of these double consonants: 〈jassavráň〉.

Replies

Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Herman Miller <hmiller@...>