--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "suzmccarth" <suzmccarth@...> wrote:

I just want to be on the record as saying that the difference
between vowel pairs in Cree (I am not sure about Tamil) is not
really a difference in the length of the vowel but a difference in
vowel quality. They are typically called short and long, but I
don't think that is strictly true phonologically.

In some ways that makes it more interesting that these systems were
thought of as having pairs of vowels - why not just 7 vowels or 11
vowels or whatever, depending on dialect. Economy I guess. English
too. We like our vowels to multitask.

I also want to say that I am not overly attached to the idea that
there is any connection between Cree and Tamil. However, if I ever
do read Evans' papers in Toronto, I will look out for any mention of
what other missionaries he met up with and what their area of
expertise was.

Others have looked at the many writing systems for the blind,
created for a contest in England in 1838, in connection with Evans.
I am still considering how these might have influenced him. The one
which truly resembles Cree, in form if not in function, was invented
by Moon, and published in 1846 in England. I can't see how these
are connected but 16 out of 26 of Moon's letter shapes are
*identical* to Cree. I assume that it was an effect of the medium.

Suzanne