Re: Tolkien's elfish script (was: Re: demuan identifiers

At 09:05 +0200 5.9.1999, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>On Sat, 4 Sep 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:
>
>> Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>> > The prefix ti- is a feminine marker
>>
>> Woah!  What a co-incidence.  Please tell me the masculine marker isn't
>> na-.  :-)
>>
>> > finigh
>>
>> How's it pronounced?  I'd guess something like /finiG/ or perhaps
>> /finix/?
>>
>
>I really don't know - Daniels doesn't provide that kind of information,
>and I haven't got a grammar of Berber.
It's /Q/ -- i.e. a voiced velar/uvular fricative*.  I have an old book
which scolds certain French authors for spelling it "Tifinar"! :-)

[*I seem to be the only one on this list who likes Kirshenbaum's Q for
voiced velar fricative.  Does this mean I'm the only one who has been
exposed to influence from Persian orthography? :-)]


/BP

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  B.Philip Jonsson  <bpj@...> <melroch@...>

        Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
                                            (Tacitus)