Re: Zetowvu / Ezotwuv (new conlang)

Joseph Fatula wrote at 2003-02-25 23:52:22 (-0800)
 >
 > "which" doesn't take "is" as a contraction after it in writing.  In
 > my own spoken English it sounds the same as any other contracted
 > "is", but it just isn't written that way.  And the /tS/ seems to
 > have something to do with it, but it's not complete.  From what I
 > can tell, words with "tch" at the end don't take "'s", but "ch"
 > ones can.  Except "which", perhaps due to being a homophone of
 > "witch".  I really don't know for sure, but I know that "which"
 > won't take _written_ "'s".
 >

How can you say it sounds the same as any other contracted "is" when
not all contracted "is"s sound the same?

I've been thinking about this, and while like any other native speaker
I probably can't see the wood for the trees, I'm going to try to
explain how I understand the system (at least, as I would use it).
Please point out any errors or counterexamples you can think of.

Now, first I'm going to describe the posessive morpheme denoted |'s|,
because I think it's causing some subtle confusion.  This takes the
following phonemic forms:

1:  /s/ after unvoiced stops (cat's) and unvoiced fricatives other than
    /s/ and /S/.
2:  /z/ after vowels, voiced stops, and voiced fricatives other than /z/
    and /Z/.
3:  /@z/ after /s/,/z/,/S/,/Z/*, and the affricates /tS/ and /dZ/.

(I consider "which's", as a posessive formation of the third type, to
be valid, although only as And used it - "An X the Y of which's Z
[verb phrase]".)

Now, the contraction of following |is| is also represented |'s|, and
follows the same rules in cases 1 and 2.  However, it's my impression
that while "is" following /s/,/z/,/S/,/Z/ is often realized as /@z/,
this is not considered to be a contraction and should be written as a
seperate word, even if it is homophonous with the posessive form
written |'s|.

Thus, forms such as

"The case's heavy."
"The hedge-maze's on fire."
"The wash's done."
"My watch's broken."
"His badge's in the tin."

all look subtly wrong to me.  I'd only ever use them in reported
speech, to indicate an unusual pronunciation.


*If there are any English words ending in /Z/.  I can't think of any.

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