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From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: Chinese romanization systems (was H and digraphs thereof)
Message-ID: <CyG5K9.ICx@inter.NL.net>
Organization: /etc/organization
References: <37t514$fq7@grivel.une.edu.au) <CxtB2r.6C6@inter.NL.net) <37uqhc$f2n@gordon.enea.se> <783424154snz@cary.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 1994 18:19:21 GMT
Lines: 55

In article <783424154snz@cary.demon.co.uk>,
Kittredge Cowlishaw <Kitt@cary.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>The silliest use of 'nh' in the world is surely in Gwoyeu Romatzyh,
>(a system of tonal spelling for Mandarin Chinese) where the 'h'
>after {m, n, l, r} is used to indicate first tone.  In other syllables,
>first tone is unmarked, but for syllables beginning with nasals and
>liquids, second tone is unmarked and first tone is marked by an 'h'
>after the initial consonant.
>
>The reasoning behind this is that syllables beginning with nasals
>and liquids more commonly occur with second tone than with first
>tone, so the uncluttered spelling (i.e. without extra unpronounced
>letters to indicate the tone) was chosen for the most frequent case.
>
>For most students of (Mandarin) Chinese, however, the relative
>frequency of tones among syllables is of little interest, and the
>resulting inconsistency of the tonal spelling rules is, for many,
>at best an inconvenience and at worst a source of confusion and
>frustration.

This is similar to the Spanish rules for stress-accent spelling,
which would have been simple if not for the desire to minimize
the use of the accent:

/uu	: always marked
	  (esdru'jula)
u/u	: unmarked
	  (llana)
	  EXCEPT when the word ends in a consonant
		(da'til)
		EXCEPT when the consonant is -n or -s
			(llanas, vienen)
			EXCEPT when -n or -s are in a cluster
				(bi'ceps)
				EXCEPT when the cluster is -ns
					(tremens)

uu/	: marked
	  (sofa')
	  EXCEPT when the word ends in a consonant
		(sutil)
		EXCEPT etc.
			(sofa's, cancio'n)
				(Canals)
					(Orlea'ns)

(The rules are different for words that include the clusters
-ia-, -io-, -ua- etc., and for some special cases where the
accent is used to distinguish homophones).

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
