Re: Droppin' Ds

On Wed, 20 Sep 2000, Barry Garcia wrote:

>CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>>I always liked that one, and reminds me of Andalusian especially.
>
>Same here. I have noticed that the d's between vowels and in the final
>position seem to drop, from what I can gather from Mexican speakers .
>Also, I just like the sound of the /au/ diphthong. It just seems pleasant
>to me
>>
>>
>>Probably not natural, but sounds neat! - Lo audio, ella?
>
>I liked that idea also. I just thought it sounded nice when I thought of
>it. However it's probably not natural, as Ray pointed out (i can pronounce
>/ts/ initially, so that wasnt the problem.)
Well, if this is to be a FUN language then you can certainly keep
either feature!

>>
>Question: since this con-romance-lang will probably follow the patterns of
>say....Spanish, would it be odd for au to have survived? As in, would
>there be any reason for me keeping it?
Certainly could in learned words that are repopularised. Oyr might be
"hear, listen"; while auyr might be "hear testimony". Like hoja/foja
doublets in Spanish.

>From that book "From Latin to
>Romance in Sound Charts" (good book, it was VERY handy for me in figuring
>out many of these rules) , it seems like all the western romance langs
>went with au > o (it's too bad they didnt give Romanian examples)
Indeed. It doesn't give Brithenig examples either! ;) Seriously, I
find that to be the book's primary lack. Though I suppose one could
always collect the changes from elsewhere and ammend the book.

>>
>>Are esses droppt elsewhere? I remember a Puertoriquense in one of
>>my intermediate Spanish classes did an oral report on how his
>>family celebrated Crihmeh (Christmas). With the commercial American
>>aspect and Santa Clause; and the more Hispanic aspect of Church
>>going and religious feasts.
>
>Hmm, i'm not sure I want to do that. I like the sound of s, just thought
>it was interesting to drop it when in VL it was initial and another
>consonant followed. I may however just keep it.
It's just odd to drop esses in only one position. But I suppose you
could formulate a special sub-rule for the group esC- (where C is any
consonant). Thus -> epaa (<espada); etao (<estado); equela (<escuela).
But tesorero, carros, etc. Like "S remains unchanged except when found
in initial clusters (i.e. esC-), where it originally became H, then
dropped out." though using a wording closer to what you find in the
book.

>Oh yes, another rule I was thinking of is:
>
>- nn becomes /Nj/: anno > añgo  /aNjo/  . Of course I have absolutely no
>reasoning for that change, it's mostly just a fun sound, I think.
I've heard Spanish speakers do all sorts of wierd things with nasals
(whether they should be in a place or not); so this rule may not be
too far out after all!

Padraic.