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Re: Tsuhon: tentative phonology

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Wednesday, April 25, 2001, 10:56
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. :-))))
> (*) > [@] (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.
> Rounded vowels shift to their non-rounded equivalent.
Very good, that's typical for many dialects.
> 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].
> 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 would like to preserve at least some of the fun/ky consonant > distributions in Japanese, e.g. "ta chi tsu te to," so "Tier" -> (maybe) > "chi:re". Or "du" -> (maybe) "zu:".
Oh, yeah! Great. :-) `Svarutsu' is also great! Resuming: that's really a very good idea you have! **Henrik

Replies

Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
Frank George Valoczy <valoczy@...>