Re: Language Change

>===== Original Message From Constructed Languages List
<CONLANG@...> =====
>Currently, I've embarked on the mammoth task of creating a number of
>descendant languages. I already have the phonology of the parent
>language worked out but I have no idea where to go from there.
[...]
>I have been using the SPE system to map the parent lang and I've been
>having difficulty trying to determine how subtle or obvious the changes
>should be.
I assume "SPE" here means "Sound Pattern of English", as in Chomsky & Halle's
work.

There's a lovely program out there for doing sound changes, called "PHONO."
It's a DOS-based program, and the thing that made it rather forbidding for me
to use on a sound change project is that it uses the SPE system of distinctive
features, which is really unfamiliar to me.

If you're already into that system, it should be easy for you.

The program comes with an example of sound changes which will get you from
Latin to Spanish in several dozen easy steps.

Ed

--
Ed Heil * edheil@atdot.org
      "When you get your Ph. D.
      How happy you will be
      When you get a job at Wendy's
      And are honored with 'Employee of the Month.'"
       -- Bare Naked Ladies, "Never Is Enough"