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

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

> I know this is pure speculation but we can use it to frame the
> questions. First, how did Singler get 40 - 60 symbols? I would guess
> that is because only a few symbols from each row are used, rather
> than because so few consonants were used.
>
> Next, would one want to use a completely systematic approach with
> complete rows or not? If it were possible to find the original
> consonants, (16 are used in the text that Singler provides) and then
> complete the rows there would be a total of 7 x 17 = 119.
>
> Another approach would be to use the "N'dole syllabary" and actually
> use the consonants that N'dole used but fill out the rows. Call it
> the "N'dole - Vai Syllabary". The rows from page 11 would be p, b,
> b_, kp. gb. f, t, d, l/d_, s, j, k, w, and five nasal rows. 13 x 7
> = + 18 nasals = 109.
>
> Without collecting handwritten text, I think that is about as far as
> one can go.

I worked out the frequencies of the various syllables in the Vai text
in the VUP, trying (but failing) to filter out topic-related words
like _Vai_, _kpolo_ and d_<eN. There was reasonable accord between
the frequencies I got and what syllables appear in the 'Ndole
syllabary'. About 80 different syllables are used in the Vai text in
the proposal - text in illustrations and titles of references. The
latter made a good warm-up exercise. (I didn't attempt to read the
tombstone.) The Ndole syllabary has about 118 syllables. The accord
is not good for syllables starting with /h/, /w/ or vowellessly - the
system may have changed here.

I therefore think gaps owe more to the rareness and importance of the
distinctions. The commonest vowel is /a/, and the Ndole syllabary
chart shows a full set of contrasts here. Don't forget that the
syllabary completely ignores tone distinctions.

> Is it just me or does it seem easier to provide full rows for each
> consonant?

It's easier to think that way, but I think it is generally the
importance of the consonant contrast that determines whether there
are/were different syllables. The distribution of syllables may
depend on many historical quirks - initial consonant-vowel
combinations in English certainly do.

Richard.