Philistine? I would have though that was someone who thought literature
consisted only of Fantasy/Sci-fi!(giggle)
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "John-Emmanuel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 10:11 PM
Subject: Re: Work in progress - Phonology


> Nik Taylor ghItlh:
>
> : Nasubi!  (Hello in my conlang)
> :
> : Welcome to the list.
>
> Thankyou kindly :)
>
> : John-Emmanuel wrote:
> : > Seeing as I have a 3 month break between semesters (yay!)
> :
> : THREE months?  Where do you go to school?
>
> Australia ;)
>
> : > So I have started at the beginning, and the beginning is the
phonology.
> Why
> : > have I posted it to this list?  Well, seeing as you all seem like nice
> ppl,
> : > I'm sure you wouldn't mind giving me
> comments/critiques/suggestions/etc....
> :
> : Not at all.  Just show us whatever you have.  :-)
> : > Bilabial Nasal:  m', m
> : >             Stop:  p, b
> :
> : What is the distinction between p and b?  Is it voiceless and voiced?
>
> Yes.  This is just plain IPA notation (sortof :)
>
> : Are the voiceless stops aspirated?
>
> No.  But I'm sure some of my speakers will be lazy enough to aspirate
them.
> And most English speakers will probably butcher it too ;)
>
> : > Labiodental Fricative:  f, v
> : > Dental Fricative:  T, D
> : > Alveolar Nasal:  n', n
> : >             Stop:  t, d
> : >             Fricative:  s
> : >             Approximant:  r', r
> : >             Lateral:  l', l
> : > Palato-alveolar Fricative:  s
>
> Ummm.... that should be s.  As in SHoe.
>
> : How do you distinguish between alveolar and palato-alveolar then?  Also,
> : is there any reason why those two plus velar nasal and fricative do not
> : distinguish voice?
>
> Yes.  The velar nasal is comparatively rare, and as such, voice is not
> distinguished with that phoneme.
> And the speakers absolutely DETEST the voiced palato-alveolar and velar
> fricatives (for some strange reason....), they just do not exist in the
> language.
>
> : > We can romanize this by letting a post-h indicate devoicing, and
> applying
> : > hyphens when there are abiguities, e.g.  mh indicates a voiceless m,
but
> m-h
> : > indicates a voiced m followed by h.
> :
> : Can /h/ come at the end of a syllable?  If not, then perhaps you could
> : use _hm_ for voiceless /m/, that way there'd be no chance of confusion.
>
> No.  Not that I know of anyway ;)  And even if it did, you can still type
> m-h, as in *pem-h (there is no such word of course.)
> And I was thinking of the other way, but since I had th and dh.....
>
> : > (I put this in only because I think the apostrophes and capitals look
> ugly
> : > :)
> :
> : What's wrong with apostrophe?  :-)  But I do agree about capitals.
>
> The totally wreck the ambience ;)
>
> : > I am not sure which dipthongs are possible yet, perhaps some
> suggestions?
> :
> : All a matter of preference, of course, but I prefer to only allow vowel
> : plus i/u in my conlangs as diphthongs, with both elements having the
> : same backness value.  Since you distinguish between rounded and
> : unrounded in the front vowels, perhaps y could be used after front
> : rounded vowels.
>
> Hmmm.... very good idea....
> I think I'll look into that....
>
> : > And though it goes without saying, my favourite genre is Fantasy, and
my
> : > favourite Fantasy author is Tolkien.
> :
> : Doesn't go without saying at all.  :-)  I rarely read fantasy, for
> : example.  I prefer sci fi.
>
> Philistine ;)
> I used to like SF more too, and Asimov was easily my fave, but once I read
> all of his, the others didn't quite come up to par.
>
> John.