Re: Phono

From: "Robert Hailman" <robert@...>
> Aidan Grey wrote:
> > Which brings me to the point. Someone was confused by
> > a certain feature, and I am too. It's the +/- and #/=
> > distinction. I have no idea what this means, what the
> > single/double distinction is supposed to indicate.
> > Could anyone elaborate and explain (again)? The rest I
> > think I can work out, but these aren't elaborated
> > enough for me to understand what they're talking
> > about.
>
> A double sign means that that letter *always* has or doesn't have that
> attribute, where as a single sign means if the phone in question is
> different from the default for the letter, it will still be represented
> by the same letter.
>
> For example, if I define "i" as being [-long], then if I ever come
> across a long /i/, it will be represented as a highlighted "i" , with
> +long written at the end of the line.
>
> However, if I define "i" as being [=long], then if I ever come across a
> long /i/, the program won't use "i" to represent it. If you don't have a
> letter defined to represent long /i/, it'll probably show a question
> mark in it's place.
For probably a concreter example,

the English stops 'p t k' are [+aspirated] but [=voiced].  If 'p' meets a
voicing rule it's not 'p' anymore but 'b'; but if it meets a deaspiration
rule it remains 'p', albeit 'p [-aspirated]'.

    *Muke!

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