Re: Ancient writing systems

On Jun 15, 6:03 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Here's how Phil Baldi answered the query just now:

# hi peter----i think the standard position that they are not separate
# phonemes stands, and that the volvit/voluit opposition can be
# handled sylabically.
#
# i usually rely on ws allen for stuff like this, but i loaned my
copy
# to a student and it was never returned. niedermann is even better-

The relevant passage in W. S. Allen, Vox Latina, pp. 37-42, is much
too long to copy out. Here are relevant extracts:

"the difference between vowel and semivowel being simply that the
former stands at the nucleus and the latter at the margin of a
syllable." (38)

"The close connexion between the vowel and consonant sounds of _i_ in
Latin is also seen in the occasional poetic interchange of their
functions -- e.g. on the one hand quadrisyllabic _I:ulius_ and on the
other trisyllabic _abiete_ (with i-consonant 'making position'); note
also the variation between consonantal function in _iam_ and vocalic
function in _etiam_. (38)

"In the interior of a word, this sound rarely occurred singly between
vowels. Where once it had been present, it was lost prehistorically
(thus Latin _tre:s_ beside Sanskrit _trayas_). With a few exceptions
noted below, wherever a single, intervocalic consonant is written, it
stands for a _double_ consonant, i.e. [yy]." [Evidence: quotations
from grammarians; development in Italian; metrics; derivational
morphology] (38f.)

"The fact that Latin orthography normally writes only a single _i_ in
such cases is hardly surprising, since it is redundant to write the
double letter where, as in Latin, there is no contrast between single
and double." [Compare _reicit_ [reyyikit] with _reice_ [reyke]] (39)

"The close connection between the vowel and the consonant in Latin is
seen in occasional poetic interchange of function, as, for example,
trisyllabic _silua_ and disyllabic _genua_ (with consonantal _u_
'making position')" (40f.)

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The word "evolution"
    ... > The Latin letter 'V' represented a phoneme that took on the properties ... > of either a vowel or a consonant depending on its context. ... > and due to linguistic changes since the time of classical Latin the ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Academic/scientific journals in Esperanto?
    ... Thomas Bushnell, BSG writes: ... Latin uses V as both a vowel and a consonant, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Ancient writing systems
    ... latter uses a symbol to mark the position of each vowel. ... 'diacritics' usually denote the consonant without any vowel. ... some stage of Classical Latin. ... That would rule out most scripts of the Brahmi ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Academic/scientific journals in Esperanto?
    ... Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote: ... Latin uses V as both a vowel and a consonant, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Phonetic Name Generator
    ... mapped to their English character translations ... // Chooses a phenom from the passed in list ... // Choose a consonant ... // Choose a vowel ...
    (rec.games.roguelike.development)