--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, Michael Everson <everson@...> wrote:

> At 22:13 -0400 2005-08-19, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
> > > That many Vai syllabary tables follow the order
> >> of the Latin alphabet is an example of Western
> >> laziness, I suppose. The section on ordering on
> >> page 5 of the Vai proposal document details our
> >> analysis of the script and why we preferred the
> >> "vertical" arrangement as reflecting the real
> >> structure of Mòmòlu Duwalu Bukèlè's script.
> >
> >The "real structure"? Did he present the symbols in a non-random order?
>
> I don't believe we have a list of how he
> presented it (in chart format), but there are
> clear relations between shapes within a rhyme;
> that would be the internal structure. Have you
> seen the Proposal document? The rationale for
> preferrign the vertical arrangement is explained
> there on page 5.

I don't believe this is BukElE's structure. What it reflects is that
*later* distinctions only had to distinguish the consonants. If you
look at the Ndole syllabary, you can seen smilarities within rows -
BHI and BHU, BI and BU, FA, FU and FO, TI and TU?, LO and LOO, NJEE
and JOO (still visible in modern YEE and YOO), KI and KU, and no end
of plausible relationships in the /w/-row.

There's quite a leaping around in the similarity of KI, CI and CA.
(Is CA modern? Dalby surmised so.) The parallel relationship between
Ndole KEE and JEE is quite visible. This is the sort of relatinship
Michael thinks is fundamental. However, these (KI-CI, KEE-JEE) are
the longest range relationships I can see, and /k/ and /c/ need not be
so very far apart before front vowels.

One could argue for ordering the syllables first by
place-of-articulation/air-stream (grouping /l/ with the dental
implosives as they sound similar), then by vowel, then manner of the
consonant and finally by nasalisation of the vowel. (/h/, /w/, and
/N/ would be grouped with vowel-initial.) However, for practical
purposes it is probably easier not to order by place of articulation
at the primary level. Primary ordering by vowel gives an ordering
that is probably friendliest for using a list to identify symbols from
their shapes. Neither helps with co-incidental similaries such as FA
and CE or FOO, TA and KE.

Richard.