Re: The Language Code

On Tuesday, May 27, 2003, at 11:36  AM, Nokta Kanto wrote:

> How about adding a way to indicate within the language code that your
> language doesn't fall into one of the available categories?
You could use an "o" (= other) for the value; "o" is currently open in
all categories, so I'll reserve it for 'other'.

Here are a few other variables.

"*" as a value indicates the lack of a relevant category.

"?" as a value indicates that the category is still in flux or that the
value is unknown (for whatever reason).

For +/- values which are in flux or display a range, parens may be
used; e.g., if you're not sure yet just how much allophony your project
will have, you can indicate this by ... p+(++) ...

Tepa is:

Tepa: Tf Pt*p+++11,4s(c)v(v/c) W* Mf++h+++t*a2c*n4 Sbv..argh Lcd+600

Notice the W* since Tepa doesn't have an indigenous writing tradition.
Also Pt*, Mt*, and Mc*, since it also lacks tonal contrasts, tense
inflection, and case, respectively.

I've been thinking about the number category as well. For case, tense,
aspect, and mood, you only indicate the number of distinct values for
each category, but for number I built in a narrower specification. I
think that ought to be changed for the sake of consistency; that means
that the number category will also take a numerical value. (Otherwise,
we'd have to come up with abbreviations for each of the hundreds of
different case categories which you all have been coming up with!)

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

"I believe that phonology is superior to music. It is more variable and
its pecuniary possibilities are far greater." - Erik Satie