Re: New Conlang: Þrjótran

Hi!

Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> writes:
>...
> > Does this mean I actually have to document the format?!
> > -=| I hereby declare that file format to be self-explanatory. |=-
> > :-)
>
> Ekki svona fljót, maður!  While I don't think you need to
> write a doc'n quite immediately, I hope you will answer
> questions?
:-)  Of course.  There will be some docs in the future.

>...
> Do you *really* need to distinguish all the palatals
> and voiceless sonorants with their own symbols?  I think
> it is perfectly possible to treat them as +j and h+
> sequences all down the line.
>...
My implementation of the rules are not the only possible way, that's
for sure.  Some stuff is only used to represent Modern Icelandic
pronunciation, i.e., in only one step among many.  Currently, I cannot
declare local symbols, however, so they are included in the global
decls.

> Also I see that Latin AE becomes e:.  Actually AE merges with
> *short* E in all the Romance languages: CAELUM > ciel etc.
Ah, I see.  Thanks for spotting that!

Do you happen to know when this happened?  I was thinking about using
_ae_ as /ai/ also.  E.g. when did Germanic borrow /kai)sar/?  If
that's after 1st century CE, I'll keep /ai/.  I checked Sardinian,
which also has /e/, however, and thus used that one (only the wrong
one, it seems).

> *Iff* I have interpreted your rules aright you first take things all
> the way down to modern Icelandic pronunciation and then step back
> again to get the standard orthography.
No, any step can be (and is) invoked manually.  I first compute 'Early
Icelandic' pronunciation, and then use that to derive both Modern
Icelandic pronunciation, and, separately, orthography.  The /w/ vs.
/v/ is something that's otherwise impossible to get right in
orthography.

> ... since the standard orthography pretty well reflects the
> pronunciation of the 15. century or so ...
Yes, that's about what I do.

> ... unless you want to be able to output both phonetic transcription and
> orthography, ...
I am, but it's not yet shown on the web page since Modern Icelandic
length is not yet implemented in the sound changes from Early
Icelandic to Modern, and there are some glitches, too, since I checked
two different dialects, which is bad (so voicing isn't perfect,
either, yet).

>...
> BTW did you see my post on the f/þ/p business that I posted
> to Germaniconlang?
Yes.  I answered. :-)

**Henrik

Replies