Re: Unilang: the Phonology

In a message dated 4/17/01 6:11:59 PM, hr_oskar@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

<< The system detailed here is more flexible than it might seem; if you

consider the many ways in which one can pronounce /r/, for instance; French-

speakers, English-speakers, Spanish-speakers, and Mandarin-speakers, could

all pronounce it exactly as it is in their own language (in the non-

orthographical sense, of course; there's no such thing as a "silent r"). >>

If you're looking for opinions, I have one (among several).  First off, I
think if you really truly wanted to make a truly universal language for
everyone, you'd have to leave all liquids out completely.  In languages that
have some sort of a trill or flap (or approximant), the pronunciation is to
varied to give it one orthographic representation.  But, you did mention
this, so let's say that's all right.  What about native speakers of Chinese
and Korean whose closet approximation is [l]?  And then what about the
languages that have no [l], where the sound [l] has changed to [d] over time
or [w] or even [n] I've heard of?  I would leave [f] out, too, due to its
odd, labio-dental nature.  But, that's just me.

-David

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