Re: More Þrjótran

Question: how comes EGÔ becomes _é_ and not _ég_?
The latter would be tremendously cool for obvious
reasons!

FWIW I think it is a mistake to say that _au_
is *phonemically* /9y/, although there can be
no doubt that it is *phonetically* [9y], since
there is no /y/ phoneme in Icelandic.  It *might*
be identified as /9Y/, but that's not the analysis
native speakers make: when they want to spell this
diphthong "as it is pronounced" they invariably
write it _öí_ -- i.e. the rounding of the glide
[y_^] is perceived as an assimilation to the
rounded [9], the diphthong being *phonemically* /9i/.

<rant value="Benct's Icelandic transcription beef">
FWIW I notate _ö_ as /9/ since *phonetically* it is
clearly [9], and also it corresponds to _e_ which is
best regarded as /E/.  It also precludes confusion with
the kind of notation where _i_ and _u_ are notated as
/e/ and /2/ -- a notation that certainly is influenced
by the traditional notation of Danish, but which makes
perfect paedagogical sense for mainland Scandinavians,
for whom confusion of _í_ /i/ and _i_ /I/ or /e/ should
be avoided, being far more damaging for comprehension
of the language than confusion of _i_ and _e_ /E/.
The _i/e_ confusion may be socially stigmatized, but
unlike _í/i_ confusion it still makes completely
comprehensible Icelandic!

The now popular transcription with /I/ and /Y/ may
be advantageous for English-speaking learners, but I
think its main attraction is/was that can/could be
reasonably reproduced on  an Icelandic typewriter,
with /9/ as |ö| and /E/ as |e|.  NB that Stefán
Einarsson also used |q| for /G/ -- clearly a case
of typewriter convenience!
</rant>

Henrik Theiling skrev:
> Hi!
>
> For providing you with some stuff to read over Easter, I extended and
> improved the pages about my new conlang Þrjótran.  Changes since last
> announcement:
>
>    - added conjugation (present indicative)
>    - changed dat.pl. forth and back (no change...)
>    - improved page style
>    - added normal pronouns (especially the 3rd person isn't
>      so obvious)
>    - added irregular verb 'issir'
>
> And finally, a good friend of mine and historian contacted the
> Institute of Parallel Histories for information about how Romans
> reached Norway.  The first text they sent, together with some comments
> (and all the other stuff) can be found at:
>
>    http://www.kunstsprachen.de/s17/
>
> Happy Easter (or whatever you are busy with these days)!
>
> Bye,
>   Henrik
>
>

--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

    "Maybe" is a strange word.  When mum or dad says it
    it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it
    means "no"!

                            (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7)

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