En réponse à Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>:
>
> I've realized that I was thinking of /@\/ as just an allophonic
> realization
> of unstressed vowels... But now that I'm thinking about it, that seems
> so
> dull and overdone. Why not have the unrounded central vowel be a vowel
> in
> its own right? Probably natlangs have already done this on the sly,
> without giving me a letter of notification. ;)
>
Hehe, stressed schwas do exist indeed. But I cannot give you an example at the
moment. More knowledgeable people than me have to step in here :) . John? :)))
>
> In principle, I like it. Unfortunately, I hate the <ee> digraph. Hate
> it.
> Ptuey! :P I could go with <eu>, though...
>
Well, it's OK by me, I like it too :)) .
>
> Thanks for clearing that up. Do any natlangs have my particular
> division
> of length?
>
> <z> 3 (extra-long)
> <s> 2 (long)
> <> 1 (normal/"short")
> <v> .5 (short/"extra-short")
> <x> - ("zero-length")*
>
Not that much AFAIK.
>
> The SIL glossary doesn't have either term... What are alternations
> and
> ablauts?
>
Well, "alternate" ends with /t/ (I use the phonemic form because I know that in
different English dialects final stops can have many different outcomes :)) ),
which becomes /S/ in "alternation". That's an alternation :)) (i.e. an
environment-based - usually due to addition of an affix - phon*emic* change).
As for ablaut, you may not *see* it right now but you surely *saw* it
before! ;))) That's an ablaut :)) (i.e. a grammatically-based phon*emic* vowel
change - sometimes with consonant changes too. English irregular verbs are
perfect examples -).
>
> But out of the available consonants, what else would be better? I
> figured
> it was just a sad case of not having _anything_ really close. I'm open
> to
> suggestions, of course.
>
Maybe r\ itself. It's close in PoA anyway.
>
> Seems I wasn't clear. I was only referring to the spacing of the chart.
> :)
>
Well, *that* looked OK ;)) .
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.