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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: Chinese romanization systems (was H and digraphs thereof)
Message-ID: <CyHoL7.C67@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <37uqhc$f2n@gordon.enea.se> <783424154snz@cary.demon.co.uk> <CyG5K9.ICx@inter.NL.net>
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1994 14:07:53 GMT
Lines: 48

In article <CyG5K9.ICx@inter.NL.net> mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer) writes:
>[...] 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
>u/u	: unmarked
>	  EXCEPT when the word ends in a consonant
>		EXCEPT when the consonant is -n or -s
>			EXCEPT when -n or -s are in a cluster
>				EXCEPT when the cluster is -ns
>
>uu/	: marked
>	  EXCEPT when the word ends in a consonant
>		EXCEPT etc.

Are you sure that you're not making things sound more complicated than
they are?  Let me give it a go, and see how many embedded _except_s it
will take me:

/uu:   marked
u/u:   unmarked
       except if there's a consonant other than _n_ or _s_
            between the last vowel and the end of the word
uu/:   marked
       except if there's a consonant other than _n_ or _s_
            between the last vowel and the end of the word

>(The rules are different for words that include the clusters
>-ia-, -io-, -ua- etc.,

That simply means that one more clause needs to be added: `If the
stress falls on a high vowel adjacent to a low one, it is marked.'
Or something of that sort.

Looks simple enough to me.  Too bad that the rules for Portuguese
differ in several points.

>and for some special cases
>where the accent is used to distinguish homophones).

Only a few monosyllabic words, I think.

-- 
`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
