Re: mu for [N] (was: Koryak Vowel harmony)

On 21 Jan 2005, at 9.29 am, Henrik Theiling wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...> writes:
>>> Isaac Penzev writes:
>>>> ... µ for [N] - translit is mine) ...
>>>
>>> Would that generally be understood?
>>
>> I think no. I used µ as a simulation of eng character. ...
>
> I think it's still much better than |m| or |ñ|, which both seem
> misleading.  I seem to have overseen this fourth nasal character in
> isolatin! :-) Very nice.
I agree too. ñ seems too much like a modification of n, a sound which
describes [J] quite nicely, but [N] seems to be a base sound, like [m]
or [n]. OTOH, µ has no definition in the English language apart from
'micro' so it works quite well. But that's probably just because I'm an
English speaker who has a phonemic /N/ but not even a phonemic /J/ ;)

--
Tristan.