Re: Abibin

Theodore Kloba wrote:
> I don't have
> many possible words to work with (because of the limited number of
> phonemes and the restrictions on syllables).  I decided it was a bit
> extreme for a word like "nations" to be rendered as "ugabiguqum."  Too
> many syllables!
Well, that goes hand-in-hand with limited syllable-structure.  If you're
going to have very few phonemes, and simple syllables, you'll have to
have long words.  That's the reason I compromised Watakassi''s original
very simple phonology.  Originally, vowels were /i/, /u/, /a/, with or
without length (which was later dropped, only to be resurrected).
Consonants were /p t k n s l w/ with (C)V(:)(n) syllables, a total of 96
syllables.  But, that required ridiculously long words, not to mention
that nouns ended in -na/-ni/-nu, creating an unnecessary syllable in all
nouns.  Eventually, I abandoned the /n/ in those words (tho a few words
kept the /n/).  For instance, sani' (house).

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