George Boeree | Phonemic structure

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Autor: George Boeree (“cgboeree”)
Tema: Phonemic structure
Data: 2002-09-14 20:02
Mesaje: 46 (presedente, seguente)

It may help for you all to know the phonemic structure I used when I developed
the vocabulary for LFN:

**LFN Phonemic Structure**

**Consonants:**

p   t       c
b   d       g
f   s   x
v   z   j
m  n      (n)
(u)    (i)
    l  r

Note that i is also used as /y/ between vowels and after c or g before
another vowel.
Note that u is also used as /w/ between vowels and after n or l before
another vowel.
Note also that n is pronounced /ng/ before c and g of next syllable.

[Because these variations are completely determined by position, it
would be a waste to add extra letters!]****

**Vowels:**

i      u
e     o
   a

**Diphthongs:**

ai  oi  eu  au****

**Word/syllable initial clusters allowed:**

pl- pr- bl- br- tr- dr- cl- cr- gl- gr-
fl-  fr-  sl-  sp-  st-  sc-
str-  scr-  scl-

[Initial clusters are a problem for the speakers of some languages,
but eliminating them would take away too many otherwise highly recognizable
words!  I should mention that there are no words, at present, using
spr or spl.  Sl is only in slavo -- slave.  Scr is only in scrive,
scrivor.  Scl may be needed for sclerosis and similar technical terms.
A real option is to follow the Spanish tradition of using es-tr, es-cr,
and es-cl, so eliminating all the true initial triple clusters.]

[sf- and ps- are also permitted for technical words derived from the
Greek]

**Syllable/word finals allowed:**

vowels and -f  -s  -x  -m  -n  -l  -r

[LFN is completely regular in this regard.  if we allow syllables
to end in these, we should also allow words to end in these.  The
only negative I've come across is the need to eliminate medial -pt- and
-ct-, but that only brings LFN into alignment with Italian.  On the
other hand, some consonant finals allows for more variety in sentence rhythm,
along Spanish lines -- esthetically speaking, quite important!]

George

--

C. George Boeree, PhD
cgboeree@...
www.ship.edu/~cgboeree

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