Re: introduction Middelsprake

Carsten Becker skrev:
 > Matahaniya ang Ingmar Roerdinkholder
 > <ingmar.roerdinkholder@...>:
 >
 >> Wat tenke du, Lars, like Middelsprake meer en
 >> Skandinavisch sprake, oller en West-Germanisch
 >> sprake (likas Diutisch, Nederlandisch,
 >> Engelisch etc.)?
 >
 > I haven't been asked, but to me it looks like a
 > hodgepodge of German, Dutch and Scandinavian,
 > leaning heavily towards Dutch. However, I could
 > answer all three questions about Middelsprake
 > you posted before with "Ja" as well.

I, as a Swedish-German speaker with a good
knowledge of English can second that impression!
In the unlikely event I were to do a Germanic
auxlang I'd certainly avoid umlaut altogether, to
ease both typing and speaking for English users,
so I'd basically make it Common West Germanic (in
the historical sense of that expression) without
any length distinction(*), without umlaut and with
simplified (like modern English).

(*) I'd probably spell the historical long vowels
as diphthongs: */i:/ = _ei_ /Ej/, */e:/ = _ie_
/je/, */u:/ = _ou_ /Ow/, */o:/ = _uo_ /wO/ -- a
wink towards Middle High German, but one which
would help preserve important distinctions between
words. WGmc */a:/ would have to be merged with
*/a/, though it may still be spelled _aa_ for an
optional _a_ /&/ vs. _aa_ /A:/ distinction. Also
the historical diphthong */eu/ spelled _eu_ and
optionally pronounced as any of [Ew ju y 2 oi]!
The historical diphthongs */ai/ and */au/ would be
spelled _ai au_ and optionally not distinguished
from _ei ou_ (for the benefit of German and Danish
speakers). An auxlang should IMO have a broad
pronunciation norm accomodating many 'accents'.

/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
  à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
  ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
  c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)

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