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?
That's true...younger Cantonese speakers seem to have caused initial l > n
nowadays.

Imperative