Re: USAGE: Shaw alphabet (was Re: USAGE: Con-graphies)

On 6/10/06, Joe <joe@...> wrote:
> Mark J. Reed wrote:
> > So we have separate letters for /A:/, /A:r/, /O:/, /O:r/, and /Q:/.
>
>
> We also need a letter for /A:/~/&/.  That is, 'grass', as distinct from
> 'father'.
Yes, yes.  That's the letter "ash".  Shavian has an embarrasment of
letters.  That was my point.  I think 24 vowel phonemes is overkill
for English.   Wells only identified 21 lexical vowel sets, IIRC, and
any given dialect has several of those merged together...

(And anyway, besides the "trap/grass" distinction, which clearly can
be sidestepped in the orthography, I think the "trap/father
distinction is such low functional load that I think we can drop it,
too..)


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>