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Deseret alphabet

From:Jean-François Colson <bn130627@...>
Date:Friday, August 22, 2003, 14:09
Hi all.

My interest is now on the Deseret alphabet and how I could adapt it to write
a conlang.
I’ve got no problem with the consonants, but the vowels are not really
self-evident.
Below I’ll identify the Deseret letters by the names as they appear on the
unicode chart http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10400.pdf and the example
words given on http://www.omniglot.com/writing/deseret.htm.
Is the following list correct? (Each line begins with the guessed
pronunciation in SAMPA.)

[i:]  long i (e as in machine)
[eI]  long e (e as in grey)
[a:]  long a (a as in art)
[O:]  long ah (au as in aught)
[@U]  long o (o as in tone)
[u:]  long oo (oo as in moo)
[I]   short i (i as in it)
[e]   short e (e as in desert)
[{]   short a (a as in cat)
[Q]   short ah (o as in cot)
[U]   short oo (oo as in book)
[aI]  ay (e as in eye)
[aU]  ow (ow as in cow)
[OI]  oi
[ju:] ew

How is pronounced the letter short o (o as in woman)? Following my
dictionaries "woman" is pronounced <"wUm@n> (its "o" is pronounced like the
"oo" of "book"), but I guess the short o and the short oo are used for
different vowels. How is "woman" pronounced in the States?

And finally, how can I write the sounds [I@], [e@], [U@], [V], [3:] and [@]
using only the Deseret alphabet?

Thanks in advance.

Jean-François Colson
jfcolson@belgacom.net

Replies

Tristan McLeay <kesuari@...>
Tim May <butsuri@...>