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Re: CONLANG Digest - 15 May 2000 to 16 May 2000 (#2000-134)

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 17, 2000, 6:15
Grr, my netscape crashed when I was replying to this.  Second time
around.

> Has _no_ modern language ever done it?
Yes, when there's been an official organization to declare correct usages, like the French Academy, which when founded, changed something like 25% of French spellings, especially replacing vowel-s with vowel-circumflex.
> Besides, all the people who were raised on the old spelling won't last > forever anyway. >;p
But they're the ones that have to accept it.
> Yes, but there I mean the -i isn't /aj/ ! You're right that the -land part > doesn't match though.
But it's bimorphemic anyways.
> I don't think it's an irregularity if it has the same vowel as other -ila- > words. Considering that both phil- and -andr- aren't exactly English words > either....
But phil- (or rather -phile) is a fairly productive affix.
> But in _none_ of them is the i /aj/ ! (If anything, the i is silent and the > l is syllabic.)
AND UNSTRESSED! When unstressed, a lot of vowels collapse into /@/.
> What I'm saying is I don't see how "iland" for "island" would be read with > long I when the regular formation is for 'ila' to have a short (or > schwa-ized, ok) I instead.
But I (and I suspect most others) would think of other examples of i-consonant-vowel, like, e.g., "pilot" and assume /aj/. Besides, it would be an improvement over "island", which looks like it should start with /ajs/ or /Is/. Indeed, I had a hispanic friend who always said /ajsl@nd/ for it, based on the spelling.
> Are there _any_ -ila- words with long I?
Dilate, bilateral.
> Yes, {c} is my conlanger's prettier-to-look-at-than-k /k/.
Myself, I've always preferred <k> for /k/. <c> looks too much like <tS> to me.
> /r\/ is "American r", as I've heard it called.
American r is retroflex, pronounced by curling the front of the tongue backwards, that's represented in SAMPA by /r\`/. /r\/ is an alveolar approximate, which exists in some British dialects, but I don't know of it existing in America.
> /r/ by itself is apparently supposed to be something more like Spanish > /r/.
A trill, Spanish <rr>.
> I'm not familiar with /Zj/ (at least I'm not familiar with being familiar > with it...) and I think I would have some trouble with it.
Yeah, I find it kinda tough. -- "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson "Glassín wafilái pigasyúv táv pifyániivav nadusakyáavav sussyáiyatantu wawailáv ku suslawayástantu ku usfunufilpyasváditanva wafpatilikániv wafluwáiv suttakíi wakinakatáli tiDikáufli!" - nLáf mÁldu nÍmasun ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor