--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

>
> This point about syllabaries being easier to learn when first

learning

> to read and write has finally explained the strange concept of Thai
> having 32 vowels to me. These are the 32 vowel (sensu lato -
> latissimo?) combinations that can reasonably be presented in a
> syllabary-like form. Anything normally needing a consonant symbol

at

> the end is omitted from the list.
>
> True syllabaries may be fine for languages with limited vowel
> inventories; they definitely creak when faced with larger vowel
> inventories. That is when having decomposition into consonant and
> vowel becomes a plus. Consonant clusters call for the extraction

of

> consonants, as indeed Cree has. Perhaps the syllable-based design

of

> hangul is to be commended, and is more than just an imitation of

the

> look and feel of Chinese characters.

Cree doesn't have much in the way of consonant clusters. That is,
there may be a syllable final consonant or even an 'nk' or 'sk' but
originally there were special symbols for this or you could just
ignore the 's' or 'n'. There aren't any initial consonant clusters.

Since Cree spread so quickly and has been a very persistent literacy,
it seems that there is something important about arranging the
phonemes back into a syllable and making certain accomodations to do
this.

Insup Taylor wrote about the importance of the Hangul design in
literacy practise. I will check her article tonight.

Suzanne