Re: introduction Middelsprake

On 2008-05-23 Tristan McLeay wrote:
 > ...
 > > > 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).
 >
 > With simplified what? (case?)

Grammar: no case, no person distinctions no
strong/weak adjectives. Probably also no
preterite but only one past tense formed with
'have'+participle like modern southern dialects
of German (which however use 'be'+participle
too, but that should be used only for passive in
an auxlang).

 > English has got umlaut (foot-feet)

True, but a vowel change _u o a > i e e_ obscures
more than it clarifies. Possibly _u o a > y y e_
where _y_ = [y]/[ju], but there's absolutely no
natlang precedence for that.

 > in fact, its continental ancestor started the
 > whole thing --- it just doesn't have umlauts or,
 > in most descriptions of most dialects, front
 > vowels, and afaik the dialects which do have
 > front vowels (like Australian, New Zealand, and
 > Scots) never correspond to umlauts.

I know all that of course. The decisive thing
is that most Modern English speakers have no
front vowels.

BTW */au/ and */ai/ should perhaps be spelled
_eau, oai_ (_beaum, stoain_) for maximal on-sight
identification by everyone! :-)

/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)

Reply