From: Mark E. Shoulson (mark@kli.org)
Date: Mon Aug 10 2009 - 21:32:38 CDT
Doug Ewell wrote:
> Mark E. Shoulson <mark at kli dot org> wrote:
>
>> Even if they use the Jamos with different values, i.e. if the
>> phonology is really different, what matters is that the
>> syllable-structure should be similar. Hangul is designed to handle a
>> particular kind of syllable; something with, say, too many consonants
>> allowed in the coda could be a problem.
>
> You know, like English.
Prezactly.
> This might be an interesting experiment for the Hangul enthusiasts who
> have called it "the most perfect phonetic system devised" and "the
> most efficient alphabet ever invented," and have claimed that
> virtually any language could be written effectively in Hangul.
I know that Hangul isn't really as wonderfully logical and perfect as it
seems to people like me, looking down at it from 1000 feet. But even
so, it is awfully cool, I'll admit... but, yes, ill-suited to a language
like English. I don't know where "virtually any language could be
written effectively in Hangul" is from, and if it's true it is just
because you can eventually come up with SOME coding in almost any set of
symbols that can limp along. I don't know if Cia-Cia is really using
Hangul in all its regularity (real or imagined), or maybe doing
something like using the stacking arrangements but ignoring the
relationships among the different consonants
(voiceless/ejective/whatever). Losing that regularity might seem a
terrible thing to do to Hangul, but since a lot of languages/writing
systems don't preserve such things anyway, it's not such a disaster for
usability.
(Once or twice I mused about inventing a Hangul-like system for
Esperanto, which is still heavy in consonants, but at least has a
simpler syllable-structure to analyze than English. Could also be
useful in showing morpheme-breaks which otherwise can be ambiguous.
Never wound up with anything decent.)
>
> Fortunately, from the few available samples, Cia-Cia appears to
> contain a high concentration of CV and CVC syllables, implying that
> Hangul might not be such a bad fit. Personally, I hope it's a raging
> success for the 80,000 or so speakers.
If it really stank, presumably it wouldn't have gotten enough support
for them to adopt it. More power to 'em.
~mark
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