Re: THEORY: final features, moras, and roots [was: it's what I do]

Marcus Smith wrote:
>
> Togonakamane@AOL.COM wrote:
>
> >hiragana: syllabic characters, used for native words and for grammatical
> >affixes on words written in kanji. When hiragana are written small beside or
> >above kanji to mark pronunciation, they are called (I think) rubii
To complete Marcus's excellent definitions:  "rubii" is simply the English
word "ruby", formerly used to describe 5.5 point type before the point
system was invented.  Stock-market quotations and such are still said
to be "set in ruby", even if the point size is not exactly 5.5.

A similar strategy is used in Chinese to annotate obscure hanzi, either
with bopomofo or with less obscure hanzi.

--
There is / one art                   || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less                    || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things                   || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness                 \\ -- Piet Hein