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Re: Too Many Too Little Possible Roots!!!

From:JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON <mpearson@...>
Date:Friday, November 20, 1998, 21:50
On Fri, 20 Nov 1998, Mathias M. Lassailly wrote:

> Matt wrote : > > > Malagasy orthography is pretty close to being perfectly phonemic - except > > for the peculiarity that /i/ is spelled "y" at the ends of words and "i" > > everywhere else. To the best of my knowledge, the spelling conventions > > were established by the 19th century English and French missionaries. > > The use of "y" at the ends of words is generally attributed to English > > influence. Why /u/ is spelled "o" and /dz/ is spelled "j" I don't know. > > I can remember I was taught years ago in my language university in Paris that > *o* was /u/ and *dz* was /j/ because Malgache orthography was fixed by > Portuguese missionnaries having settled on the island before English and > French.
But in Portuguese orthography, "j" is /Z/, not /dz/. Is "o" pronounced /u/ in Portuguese? Matt.