Re: Consistency in vowel sysem (was: Is it necessary...)

Quoting Remi Villatel <maxilys@...>:

> Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> >>a [a]   ä [9]
> >>e [e]   ë [E]
> >>i [i]
> >>o [o]   ö [O]
> >>u [u]   ü [y]
>
> > I'm afraid I don't see the logic; in 'ë' and 'ö', the trema indicates
> > lowering, in 'ü' fronting, and 'ä' rising and rounding! Switching to 'ï'
> would
> > give an example if rounding, which doesn't seem to do much for
> consistency.
>
> You just proved me right! There is always a connection in between one vowel
> and the same with an umlaut.
Since Latin obeys that universal 'bout spreading its vowels evenly over the
vowel tetragon, pretty much any vowel is going to be within one or two steps
from one of the ones with a Latin letter for it.

>Frontness, roundness, etc mean nothing for the
> common people so I always use the same accent and I chose the umlaut.
But fairly many will expect 'ö' to refer to what they don't know is a front
mid rounded vowel, and 'ä' to something e-like. Switching 'ö' and 'ä' would
leave you with only one atrociously spelt vowel.

                                                  Andreas

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