Re: Reduced Vai Repertoire

At 22:32 +0000 2005-08-20, Richard Wordingham wrote:

>The vertical connection in the Ndole syllabary aren't either.

FEE-VEE, LA-NDA, SA-ZA, KA-GA, JEE-KEE, KPOO-gBOO are there all right.

>KPE-GBE connection is old, was irregular (cross v. tee), and has been
>remodelled using the double dot diacritic. 6 of the other 7
>connections are applications of the double dot diacritic to mak
>nasalisation - pre-nasalisation in 5 cases, and of the vowel in one
>case. The status of the irregular KPU-GBU connection is unclear -
>comparison of the Dalby and Ndole tables give me no confidence.
>Finally, if the symbol is already dotted, nasalisation is indicated by
>the short stroke diacritic.

I accept the vertical connections between glyph and sound. I reject
the suggestion that horizontal connections are found in the data.

>I wonder if it is a coincidence that the triangle and square/diamond
>occur in the same horizontal series. Not sure what to make of the
>thrice-dashed triangle for GBO either.

It is surely coincidence. Look at the data! There are any number of
vertical connections, in terms of doublets and triplets and
quadruplets. None of the horizontal connections you've suggested are
compelling.

>I had assumed that in Unicode terms the Book of Ndole would have been
>written in the Vai script. Am I mistaken?

No.

>If I am correct, which of the proposed Vai Unicode characters do you
>believe the Book of Ndole should be deemed to have used for /J\E/,
>/JJ\E/ and /jE/?

I don't understand your notation.Figure 5's JE, NJE, and YE are all
encoded with the character we now read as CE.

>From the history you give, I would indeed say that the character is VAI
>SYLLABLE CE. A similar and more difficult question goes for /jo/.

YO?

> > >Wasn't the Vai script constructed?
>>
>> We aren't constructing it now, so we aren't at liberty to change it
>> in the way that it seemed to me that you were suggesting.
>
>I'm hardly changing anything. I'm just suggesting ordering the
>symbols block by block.

We are following Tombekai's recommendations for the order of the consonants.
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com