Re: umlaut reduction?

Steg wrote:
>Well, i've always been partial to the English and Yiddish style of
>derounding them, so for instance, /y/ becomes /i/, and /ö/ becomes /e/.
This is also found in some south German dialects. As for YHL concerns of
simplifying the phonology, some of these dialects have also got rid of the
voiced-unvoiced distinction for stops. Saw a poem where "Leute" and "beide"
rhymed ...

                                            Andreas
>
>On Wed, 28 Mar 2001 22:11:49 -0500 Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
>writes:
> > I'm trying to simplify German phonology down to Japanese phonology
> > for
> > the vague quasi-German/Japanese-merger conlang I've been toying with
> > doing, and was wondering: I think I can figure out something
> > manageable
> > for consonants, but how would umlauts tend to be rendered by a i e o
> > u
> > (plus doubled values...?) phonology?  Or would it perhaps be more
> > efficacious to extend the Japanese vowel system?  (But I like the
> > vowel
> > system, and I don't particularly like rounded vowels.)  I am leaning
> > toward simplification but I'm probably going to end up turning
> > cartwheels
> > to keep words from being *really* abominably long (due to the more
> > restricted syllable structure of Japanese, even with some
> > modifications
> > I've been thinking about) and from sounding the same all the time.
> >
> > Decisions, decisions.
> >
> > YHL
> > shutting up for the night, probably
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