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

In a message dated 10/3/00 10:05:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
fortytwo@GDN.NET writes:

> Speaking of which, how did _tu_ come to be used as a gemination marker?
well, let's see.....the "t/ts" part I leave to someone with a better idea of
why, given that my best involves "t" being as stoppy a stop as I can think of.
But the "u" in it probably has a lot to do with the fact that "u" is the
general default vowel for borrowed words with two consonants together or one
on the end, where the first isn't "n": the phrase "apple pie" becomes "apuru
pai" or maybe "appuru pai" (the first p there would be represented by the
little tsu character we're talking about- the l->r is because Japanese has no
l). And "u", in certain positions (such as s-#, and between many of the same
stops the little tsu doubled consonant character works on- r is not,
incidentally, one of them) is pronounced much shorter, sometimes left off
entirely (good example: "deska" being considered the way you ask certain
questions by many people... there is no "deska"--there's not even a way to
write "deska" in Japanese characters-- there's really "desu ka" with an
almost silent "u".) So I bet that's why it's from the u column of characters,
though why they chose the t line is beyond me.