Re: Plausibility Check


DJensen wrote:
Nathan Sanders wrote:
In article <1153069782.593448.85400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"DJensen" <i_m0nk@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Which takes us back to which of the listed phonemes might realistically
be expected to collapse, therefore changing which phonemes will need
representation.

Writing systems lag behind language change, because we can never be
sure just precisely how a language will change. There are many paths
it could take from any given stage, and none of them are guaranteed.

Sorry, I was typing from the ur-Rosetta perspective originally. Not so
much "which phonemes could collapse in the future" but "which will
likely have collapsed by the time Rosetta (the descendent language) is
in use, and thus not appear in the alphabet?"...

If two phonemes merge, the outcome is likely to be one or the other, or
else different allophones (perhaps the equivalent of both ancestor
phonemes) will appear in different phonological environments.

That has nothing to do with what "appear[s] in the alphabet."

Perhaps I'll just drop the least common phonemes and "play it by ear"
(so to speak) to determine which ones might end up being represented by
a common character.

It would be a mighty prescient culture who would have a writing system
that correctly encodes a future sound change!

An interesting concept, at least. Which tend to change more often,
vowels or consonants? I'd assume vowels but as has been made abundantly
clear, I wouldn't know. Perhaps (if it is vowels) such a writing system
would just be an abjad. Hmm. Now *that* makes me wonder about possible
languages with far more vowel sounds than consonants.

Instead of assuming, or guessing, or wondering, why don't you FIND
OUT?????

There are half a dozen competent textbooks of historical linguistics
out there. READ ONE.

.

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