From: suzmccarth
Message: 6050
Date: 2005-09-18
> This idea certainly didn't begin with DeFrancis -- it wasrecognized by
> DuPonceau in 1838,DuPonceau's letter can be read here
> Creel and Boodberg in the 1930s. (I think one of them published inT'ung
> Pao and the other in a journal with Harvard in the title, but maybeYes, the debate between Creel and Boodberg is described in
> not.) The refs. are probably in his *The Chinese Language: Fact and
> Fantasy* of 1985 if not in the later more general book.
> Actually the Principles say they have attempted to provide a graphfor
> every sound _that is distinctive_ in some language or other --it's not
> meant for transcriptions on a level much below the phonemic.better
> Phoneticians have devised other transcription systems that are
> suited for recording minute differences in speech sounds.So phonemic but not for any given language. How does it rate as a