Re: Language changes, spelling reform (was Conlangea Dreaming)

On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> > How wonderfully complex!  Which spelling do you use for your own notes,
> > or do you keep them all?
>
> The One Correct Spelling.  ;-)  In other words, what I've been referring
> to as the "standard orthography".
<laugh>

I'm horribly lazy.  Even though I now *have* an alphabet all my notes are
in Romanization.

> Incidentally, when you get to talking about other *dialects* it gets
> more complex.  In Common Kassí, there were 6 vowels, i e ë (/@/) a o u,
> which have collapsed to three in Classical Utakassí, i a u.  Thus, many
> characters were abandoned, and not always the same ones in different
> dialects.  Like, the standard dialect dropped the old <pi>, while some
> other dialects dropped <pe>.  Thus, in those two dialects, a completely
> different character is used for <pi>.
I haven't even contemplated dialects except for that fact that Avren
Chevraqis has /l/ as well as /r/, instead of just /r/.  How do you derive
dialects?

> > If you're using /i yun ha/, /i/ has a slightly higher pitch as far as I
> > can tell.
> >
> > If you're using /yun ha/, then /yun/ has a higher pitch.
>
> Pitch, much better!  So, in /i jun ha/, /i/ is higher pitch, and /jun
> ha/ are both lower?  What about when you're using your name in English?
> How's it stressed?  And does everyone stress it the same as you?
<cringe>  Whoops, /j/ not /y/.  Apologies.

In English?  As "Yoon Ha Lee," possibly a slight stress on "Yoon," or
none at all.  My dad (who speaks to me and my sister in English) calls me
Yoon Ha and my sister Yune Kyung, with stress on the first syllable if
any (usually not).  *My* friends tend to call me Yoon (not much stress to
contrast with!) and *her* friends tend to call her Yune (also /jun/, and
spelled exactly the same in Korean, but our parents were thinking
something funny when it came to the birth certificates, and my sister's
been plagued by people who think she's /juni/ ever since), which just
confuses the issue.  The few friends who use the full name stress the
first syllable.

> Speaking of which, there is a girl I know named KC.  Interesting thing
> is that some people pronounce it as /'kesi/ (i.e., as if Casey), others
> as /'ke'si/ (i.e., as the letters).  Of course, this means that it's
> ['kejsi:j] vs. ['ke:j'si:j] (due to allophonic lengthening).  People
> who've remarked on that difference seem to perceive the second as having
> a pause between the syllables, as /ke si/.  She herself uses the first
> pronunciation, which is what most people use.
I knew a *guy* who went by KC and the stress went on the second syllable,
probably to distinguish from "Casey," which to us sounded more feminine.
<shrug>

YHL