Re: Moraic writing system

Richard Wordingham wrote:

>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "suzmccarth" <suzmccarth@...> wrote:
>
> > "William Poser (UPenn)
> > "Phonological Writing and Phonological Representation"
> > Abstract:
> <Snip>
> > "The improved typology simplifies the correspondance between phonology
> > and writing and provides additional evidence for the notions mora,
> > segment, rhyme, and head of syllable. The extreme rarity of
> > syllabaries undermines arguments for the psychological atomicity of
> > the syllable, and with them one source of resistance to the teaching
> > of reading via phonics."
>
> What's the 'head' of a syllable?

Presumably he's reusing the "head" and "margin" terminology of phonology
and syntax and refers to the vocalic portion.

> It seems to me that most 'moraic' systems are really writing (onset +
> nucleus) + coda, but I'm not aware of a word for 'onset + nucleus'.
>
> What writing systems actually work in terms of onset + rhyme? I can
> only think of fundamentally segmental systems in which the rhyme has
> become a unit because of sound changes, e.g. RP English h+igh, b+ask,
> f+or, p+ark (perhaps all debatable except 'bask') and Burmese.

Check out Pahawh Hmong, on which you can consult Martha Ratliff's
chapter in WWS, or the book by Smalley et al. from Chicago. (Or
bopomofo, though it's never become more than an auxiliary phonetic
notation.)

I find it interesting that he seems unaware of the typology I published
15 years ago now, which is also available in so widely distributed a
reference as the Blackwell Handbook of Linguistics.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...