Re: Tsuhon: tentative phonology

On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, Henrik Theiling wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> writes:
>
> > I apologize in advance to fluent speakers of Japanese and/or German, to
> > whom this will probably look Really Hideous (TM).
>
> Ah, I love the idea. :-))))
Oh, good.  :-)

> > (*)
> > [@] (so far) mostly occurs as word-final--when things like "Ritter" have
> > the final -er mutilated into simply [@]--and is written "e," e.g.
> > "Ritter" -> "rite" (amusingly enough).
>
> I'd strongly suggest `Ritter' -> `rita' as -er is [6] (a-Schwa), not
> [@].
> In many German dialects, first grade pupils at school first try to
> write `Ritta' and have to be corrected.  The distinction `Ritte'
> [RIt@] and `Ritter' [RIt6] is easy to hear for Germans.  But an ending
> -a (very seldom) cannot be distinguished from -er (Pupils having been
> told that `Ritter' is written with -er will write `Sofa' as `Sofer'
> then...).  My mom often encountered these mistakes as she's a teacher
> at a primary schoool.
Ah!  Thanks.  That's very helpful.  :-)  I'll try that instead.

> > I'm going to have to work on glides and stuff (e.g. "Haus") on a case by
> > case basis when I have more time.
>
> Just a vague thought: You could think about using dialects as a basis
> that have not undergone some sound changes that led to diphthongs.
> E.g. many middle-German dialects (Palatinian, Saarlandian, etc.).
> Then you'd get [hu:s] for `Haus'.  But you'd have to pay attention
> since /au/ has developed from two long vowels.  The other one occurs
> in `Baum' which would be [ba:m].
Hmm.  I'll look for source material.  Unfortunately, High? German is all
I've been taught, and while my boyfriend is half-German, he's pretty
lousy at languages, and I've never gotten to meet all his German
relatives.  Though if I ever do, they're going to start running away when
they see the conlang freakette heading for them with tape recorder,
notepad, and pencil....<EG>

> > Consonants:
> > ...
> >          [r]
>
> What kind of R will you use?  I'l suggest Japanese, it has so many
> nice variants (see below for `tV' syllables) as well. :-)
I was thinking the Japanese alveolar tap (?), but then thought perhaps it
might be nice to allow various l's and other r's to be allophones.  I
mean, all those nice German trills/flaps wouldn't completely go away,
right?  Even if they give me a sore throat....

> Resuming: that's really a very good idea you have!
Thanks!  It's very much in progress, but it was just irresistible to mate
two of my favourite languages (that I know anything about)....

YHL

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