Eliminates phonemic idiosyncrasy? Quoting from the Amazon preview:

"It is a sunny day"
"Itt iz q sani dtɛi"

I'm sorry, but how does "sani" represent /sʊnɪ/ ? That's before we even get onto the... oh... never mind...

"A los habitantes de las áreas costeras"
"a los haabitaantɛs dɛ laas áarrɛaas kosteerraas"

What's the difference between the /e/ in "de" and "costeras"? I can't hear it. And isn't it /a.bi'tan.tes/? And why the double "r"? And... ::gives up::

Oh well, leaving fools to their folly again, I guess.

Sam Stutter
[log in to unmask]
"No e na'l cu barri"

On 14 May 2012, at 20:53, Zach Wellstood wrote:

> Amazon gives a pretty extensive preview of the book's text.
> It looks _so_ bulky and inefficient.
> 
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Jesse Bangs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> The description sounds a *lot* like crackpottery, which makes me
>> pretty unexcited about the prospect of reviewing it...
>> 
>> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 2:41 PM, And Rosta <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> It would be nice if somebody were to review this book for Conlang-L (and
>>> maybe also then in Fiat Lingua). Maybe Branden Books would give you a
>> free
>>> copy if you undertook to review it (try emailing Adolph Caso
>>> <[log in to unmask]>).
>>> 
>>> I can't find any info online about Navlipi.
>>> 
>>> --And.
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Title: Navlipi, Volume 1
>>>> Subtitle: A New, Universal, Script
>>>> Series Title: Navlipi
>>>> 
>>>> Publication Year: 2012
>>>> Publisher: Branden Books
>>>>          http://www.brandenbooks.com
>>>> 
>>>> Author: Prasanna Chandraseckhar
>>>> Editor: Adolph Caso
>>>> Author: Nicholas Ostler
>>>> Author: Christopher Moseley
>>>> 
>>>> Electronic: ISBN:  9780828324212 Pages: 576 Price: U.S. $ 29.95
>>>> Paperback: ISBN:  9780828322157 Pages: 576 Price: U.S. $ 49.95
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Abstract:
>>>> 
>>>> Presenting a new, universal script applicable to all the world's
>> languages
>>>> which addresses the serious deficiencies of the International Phonetic
>>>> alphabet and also addresses the concept of "phonemic idiosyncrasy" for
>> the
>>>> first time ever in any world script.
>>>> 
>>>> This book presents a new, universal script, denoted NAVLIPI, capable of
>>>> expressing all the world's languages, from English and Arabic, to tonal
>>>> languages such as Mandarin, to click languages such as !Xo Bushman.
>>>> Based on the Roman script, NAVLIPI uses just five new or transformed
>>>> letters (glyphs) in addition to the 26 Roman letters; it uses no
>>>> diacritics,
>>>> rather making heavy use of "post-ops", post-positional operators. Its
>>>> expression is very intuitive and highly amenable to cursive writing,
>>>> keyboarding and voice transcription. The book incorporates more than 620
>>>> detailed references in linguistics and related fields.
>>>> 
>>>> It addresses the concept of "phonemic idiosyncrasy" for the first time
>>>> ever in
>>>> any world script.
>>>> 
>>>> NAVLIPI incorporates essential features of a universal script, thus far
>>>> present
>>>> in no world script to date, such as universality, completeness,
>>>> distinctiveness, and practical phonemic application. Most importantly,
>>>> NAVLIPI addresses phonemic idiosyncrasy, for the first time ever in any
>>>> world script; among other things, phonemic idiosyncrasy makes
>>>> transcription,
>>>> in the same script, of, e.g. Mandarin and English, or Hindi/Urdu and
>>>> Tamil,
>>>> extremely difficult. NAVLIPI also addresses the serious deficiencies of
>>>> the
>>>> alphabet of the International Phonetic Association and may assist in the
>>>> preservation of endangered languages.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Nicholas Ostler observes: "NAVLIPI is a systematic extension of Roman
>>>> script with a number of aims in view: To be a practical (legible and
>>>> writable)
>>>> script for all the world's languages, but at the same time to represent
>>>> the
>>>> languages' sounds exactly and consistently, making no compromises on the
>>>> phonemic principle. It goes beyond existing scripts: Beyond ordinary
>> Roman
>>>> scripts, because it requires that its symbols are interpreted the same
>> way
>>>> everywhere; beyond phonetic scripts such as that of the IPA,  by
>>>> representing phonemes singly, rather than as a set of phones; and beyond
>>>> all
>>>> the other scripts, by attempting to replace every single one of them
>>>> without
>>>> loss of significant phonetic detail.
>>>> 
>>>> This is a stupendous aim for a single system created by a single
>> scholar.
>>>> 
>>>> "The main obstacle to Chandrasekhar's achievement is the phenomenon of
>>>> "phonemic idiosyncrasy", whereby the actual speech sounds are organized
>>>> into different, and cross-cutting, significant sets in various
>> languages:
>>>> For
>>>> example, p, whether aspirated or un-aspirated, is the same phoneme in
>>>> English, but the two versions belong to contrasting phonemes in Hindi,
>>>> where
>>>> (however) f is heard as the same sound as aspirated-p. By juxtaposing
>>>> letters, Chandrasekhar conjures up new symbols that represent directly
>> the
>>>> complex phonemic reality. The attempt to have all the possible virtues
>> of
>>>> a
>>>> phonetic writing system at once - on the basis of a single man's ideal -
>>>> is
>>>> what makes this a heroic endeavour."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> JS Bangs
>> [log in to unmask]
>> http://jsbangs.wordpress.com
>> 
>> "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle" -Philo of
>> Alexandria
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> <Say 'Yes' to Conlanging! <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conlang>>
> ra'aalalí 'a!