On 11/06/2001 10:53:43 PM "Peter T. Daniels" wrote:
>Don't you know the diagrams of the vocal tract with the Korean letters
>superimposed? Those aren't modern fabrications; they're (descriptions,
>not pictures) in the founding document of 1443.
Yes. But that does not mean that the jamo structural unit corresponds to a phonological feature; it corresponds to a phoneme. The jamo choseong kiyeok does not stand for velar point of articulation; it doesn't get combined with other jamos meaning oral stop and voiceless to represent the phoneme /k/. It alone represents the phonome /k/.
The significance of the vocal tract diagrams is only that the *graphic shape* of jamos (only some at that) have a metaphoric connection with velar point of articulation. It does not mean that these structural units represent phonological features.
The jamos are alphabetic. The hangul writing system has structural units corresponding to phonemes and syllables. It seems fitting, then, to call it an alphasyllabary.
There is no writing system that is featural in the sense that the structural units represent phonological features.
- Peter
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Peter Constable
Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485
E-mail: <peter_constable@...>