Re: Niggahiita in IPA?
From: Dhammanando Bhikkhu
Message: 1834
Date: 2006-05-18
On 17 May 2006, at 2:31 pm, Eisel Mazard wrote:
> If we're departing from the IPA to invent a new superscript
> symbol anyway ... why not stick with the one we've been
> using for 2000 years? The anuswara is, presumably, the only
> symbol universal to all Pali scripts... it would be amusing
> if that included romanized Pali as well.
Perhaps not so amusing for scholars publishing in the
Scandinavian languages, or in Czech, whose orthographies
already use an over-ring. How will a Norwegian, for example,
distinguish between the pronoun ta.m and a toe (tå), or
between shoulders (a.msa) and Norse gods (åsa) ?
The over-ring has also been used for over half a century as
a devoicing symbol (though the subscript ring is commoner),
while a right superscript over-ring was used by Ladefoged to
indicate the non-release of a stop (= IPA [corner symbol]).
If you're really dissatisfied with the m-underdot, why not
use the conk hieroglyph: a tall, narrow-based isosceles
triangle with two small rings at the bottom symbolizing
nostrils ? Then, for typographical ease one might
substitute an inverted v with with subscript umlaut.
:)
Best wishes,
Dhammanando