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Re: Proposal: Sound Change Documentation Project

From:Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
Date:Sunday, April 28, 2002, 21:29
On Sunday 28 April 2002 10:37, Raymond Brown wrote:

> Ruen Ren chao makes a similar observation in "Language and Symbolic > Systems". He shows how ancient Chinese /ni/ "two" has become /a/ in the > Yanghow dialect, detailing all the intermediate steps (most of which are > still attested somewhere in existing 'dialects' and which the restrictions > of ASCII prevent my showing very easily); and then adds: > "If /ni/ can change into /a/, then practically anything can change into > anything"
That's great--but what's important is the steps. That is exactly the kind of thing I want to document; how one sound changes over time into a completely unrelated sound. I assume you still have the book/article? Could you either make a stab at transcibing it into ASCII (your choice of transcription, just tell me what you are using) or scan it and send it my way?
> >Nevertheless, this is a very interesting idea, and well worth doing. > > I agree on both accounts - but 'twill involve much time & effort. If Peter > has finished it when I retire, perhaps it's something that could occupy me > ;)
Well, I'm going to write up the proposal in a more detailed fashion and then post it; hopefully, something can get started this week. Last night, in the middle of a freak snow storm (be warned, kiddies, Minnesota is no place to live if you don't have a sense of humor when it comes to the weather), I typed up about the vowels and consonants represented by single characters in the IPA (thus [p] but not [p_h]), so I'm just about ready to plug in changes. More to follow. :Peter

Replies

Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>