From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 5070
Date: 2005-05-09
> Richard Wordingham wrote:No! See http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/~orie/home.htm .
> >
> > --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > (If tone was to be notated, diacritics would need to be added
> > whether
> > > syllabics or alphabet.)
> >
> > Not necessarily. Nushu appears to be a phonetic syllabary, but I
> > have not heard that it uses diacritics for the tone distinctions.
>
> What is Nushu? Is that a Chinese name for Yi?
> Why would being a "phonetic syllabary" lead you to expect toneBecause tone is an important part of the sound, more important than
> distinctions to be written?
> > There ought to be a language in which the tone contrast is solelybe
> > marked in the initial consonant - tonal Mon-Khmer languages would
> > an obvious place to look.writing
> Why "ought" there to be? How many local languages have inherited
> systems?It seems that most of Tai languages outside China do or did.
> Smalley urged people to create Thai-based, not roman-based, scriptsfor
> Tai languages, so his last book is an obvious place to look.I think you mean for Thai languages, though using Thai for other Tai