Re: /N/ : suggestions please

Christopher Grandsire wrote:

>At 11:23 17/11/98 -0000, you wrote:
>>I need a (di)graph for the nasalysed velar (/N/) of my TUNU
>>language. This phoneme occurs only in the end of a word after a
>>vowel. I write it "q" currently. Other graphs already used are :
>>a, c, e, h, i, k, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, w, y. I'd like to keep
>>the phonology very simple (as is the grammar to my own
>>standards) and as easy as possible to read for readers not
>>versed in phonology because I'd like to make the grammar page
>>legible without too much pain and ennui (like Carlos, Sally,
>>Herman, Christophe and others succeeded). Thanks for your
>>contribution.
>
>
>        Well (I write in English in order for everybody to
>understand), why not using the digraph 'ng' for this sound? The
>sound of 'ng' in many languages is near enough to the /N/, and as
>'g' doesn't exist in TUNU, there will be no problem of
>misunderstanding. It will be the only digraph of the language,
>but if I remember well, /N/ is used only in grammatical context,
>never as part of a root, so it won't be not self-consistent.
The graph 'g' alone could also work since Tunu does not have it in
the first place. I don't see why you should bother with a digraph
consisting of a particular graph that does not exist in the language
in the first place when you can be using this particular graph
alone. Some Polynesian and Melanesian orthographies do this. Perhaps
the best known examples are Samoan and Fiji where /N/ is represented
by 'g' in both languages. Fijian goes further to represent /mb/ by
'b', /nd/ by 'd' and /Ng/ by 'q'. Why represent them as 'mb' 'nd'
and 'ngg' when /b/ /d/ and /g/ doesn not exist in the language in
the first place? I believe that this type of orthography is
appropriate for Tunu since both Tunu and the Polynesian languages
have simple phonologies and Tunu is suppose to be an auxlang for the
Pacific, right?. In any case, you could still use 'q' to represent
/N/ - though 'g' seems more appropriate because many Pacific
languages do so in the first place and because it is also a
Romanized graph originally representing a latin sound much closer to
/N/ than 'q' ever did.

Regards,
-Kristian- 8-)