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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Breves (Re: Diacritic symbol names)
Message-ID: <Cy6Gs2.Lz5@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <384b9p$g1v@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> <CxyA2x.5K2@inter.NL.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 12:45:06 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <CxyA2x.5K2@inter.NL.net> mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer) writes:
>In article <384b9p$g1v@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu>,
>Hung Jung Lu <hlu@wam.umd.edu> wrote:
>>In what other languages is [the breve] used? Over what letters? 
>
>Romanian has a-breve (phonetic schwa)

Sundanese has _e_-breve (also /@/), and -- does Esperanto count?
It uses _u_-breve for /w/.  Why Zamenhof didn't use _w_ is beyond me.

>If Cyrillic counts, Russian has it over Cyrillic i (|/|), for
>final -i in diphthongs, and more generally as a notation for
>[j] (Engl. y).

Strictly speaking, that breve usually has a slightly different shape:
it is more shallow and has bulbs at the two ends.  In handwriting, of
course, there is no difference.

Chuvash has _a_-breve and _e_-breve, and Belorussian, Dungan and Uzbek
have _u_-breve (standing for /w/ in Belorussian and for some vowels in
the other two).

In his `Fish Primer', a Bulgarian textbook printed in 1824, Peter
(Pet\u ar?) Beron uses _a_-breve for /@/ and little_jus-breve for /j@/
or /;@/, obviously following the Roumanian strategy.  (The little jus
is the letter from which the current Cyrillic _ja_ was eventually derived;
in Old Slavic it stood for /E~/, but Beron uses it for /ja/ or /;a/.
Yes, that was a time when everyone felt free to make up his own spelling.)

-- 
`That's yer oan problem, Judas', they telt him.  `It's nae concern tae us.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk/chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)  (The G-- G--)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
