Re: Learning a language

From: LEE Sau Dan (danlee_at_informatik.uni-freiburg.de)
Date: 06/25/04 

Date: 25 Jun 2004 09:03:09 +0200

>>>>> "Rex" == Rex F May <rex.may@comcast.net> writes:

    Rex> There are 5 vowels:

    Rex> A as in fAther E as in bEt* I as in machIne O as in bOAt U as
    Rex> in bOOt

    Rex> *E is pronounced within a syllable as the English bEt, gEt,
    Rex> sEll, but when it ends a syllable, it has the "brighter"
    Rex> sound as in French "ai" as in lAIt, sAIs.

Why this complication for "E"? And why isn't there something similar
for the other 4 vowels?

    Rex> And there are five "Weaks." Weaks are neither vowels nor
    Rex> consonants, but somewhere in between. They have vowel-like
    Rex> quality, but never form a syllable:

So complicated. These sounds are very difficult for many people.

    Rex> Finally, some non-Ceqli sounds may be used to transcribe
    Rex> foreign words or for other reasons. They can be indicated by
    Rex> digraphs, thus:

    Rex> ZH as in meaSure TH as in THin DH as in THen KH as in BaCH

Funny. Why no letters to transcribe words from Malay (you'd need a
"gn" as in French, which is spelt "nh" in Malay)? Why no letters for
the z/c/s, /zh/ch/sh, j/q/x distinctions in Mandarin? How should one
transcribe click sounds?

    Rex> Stress falls on the last syllable unless it ends in a vowel
    Rex> (A, E, I, O U), in which case it falls on the next-to-last
    Rex> syllable.:

Stress? What is it? What a foreign concept!

How are you going to pronounce a stressed syllable? With a lower
pitch? With a longer duration? And how to pronounce an unstressed
syllable? With a louder voice? With a supersonic pitch? Rising
tone?

Besides, how about rhythm? Is Ceqli supposed to be syllable-timed or
stress-timed? Or random-timed?

Here, you're doing nothing better than Esperanto's "16 basic grammar
rules".

    Rex> We don`t know what any of it means, but we know what the
    Rex> morphemes are. This avoids the "sukero" problem of
    Rex> Esperanto.

What's wrong with "sukero"? 

-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     +Z05biGVm-                          ~{@nJX6X~}
E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Learning a language
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  • Re: Learning a language
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