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Re: The Romanized Orthography of My Conlang

From:Thomas R. Wier <artabanos@...>
Date:Monday, October 11, 1999, 11:12
"R. Nierse" wrote:

> Hi Austin, > > I read your mail with interest.
As did I. :)
> > > First, language sounds tend to be organized in groups. That is, > > > when a language has one sound in one type of category (say, > > > voiceless stops, consonants that completely stop the airflow and > > > where the vocal chords aren't vibrating at the same time), it will > > > tend to have all or most of the other sounds in that category. So, > > > if your language has /t/ and /k/, it's more likely to have a /p/ too. > > > But that in itself is not the clincher: you could just say that your > > > language doesn't have labial sounds (like /p/); though rare, two > > > languages I'm studying in class now, Atkan Aleut and Onandaga, > > > both lack labial consonants (more or less). The thing is, though, > > > your phonology here also has an /f/, a labial fricative (a sound which > > > allows "frication" or rustling of the air), and so if you're going to > > > say your language lacks labial consonants, you'll need to be > > > consistent about it. > > I don't agree. As you stated, there are languages that lack bilabial > consonants *and* are inconsistent. Take Cherokee. No /p/ or /b/, but there > is /m/.
Right. And Aleut has an /m/, too, but no /p/ and /b/. What I meant to say was that these are just tendencies; of course individual languages may have incompletely filled categories. But note that I did say "...when a language has one sound in one type of category... it will tend to have all or most of the other sounds in that category." If it was not clear that I intended that tone for the entirety of the critique, I apologize. Also, in case it wasn't clear, I didn't mean any personal criticism of Austin's conlang -- I was just approaching it from a more holistic linguistic perspective, speaking of how languages work in general. Sorry if I caused any offense. ======================================================= Tom Wier <artabanos@...> ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/> "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero." Denn wo Begriffe fehlen, Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein. -- Mephistopheles, in Goethe's _Faust_ ========================================================