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<html><head><title>Spelling</title></head>
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<p>Posted by <b><!--poster-->Daan Goedkoop</b>
on <!--date-->19:03 4/22/02
<p>In reply to: (none)
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<p>
Some time ago, I read something about the Dutch spelling: in Dutch there are
three important "spelling bases". Those are:
<p>Sound - write a word as you pronounce it
<br>Shape - different morphemes should not modify in spelling
<br>Etymology - write recent borrowings as they were written in the source
language.
<p>Some examples (the Sound basis should be clear)
<br>Shape: word (become) + t (present tense second/third person) -> wordt
<br>Etymology: bureau /byro/; computer /kOmpjut@r/
<p>Then, the book tells that most languages have such "spelling basics" - for
example: Hungarian has some kind of "assimilation basis"
<p>And then I visited Virtual Verduria again, and I wondered: do you have any
"spelling bases" for Verdurian (or any other Almean language)? Or is it just
write-as-you-pronounce-it?
<p>Daan.
<hr><i>Mark responds:
<p>Verdurian spelling is largely phonemic, which is what I advocate in the
Language Construction Kit: a conlang is hard enough without making the
pronunciation unpredictable from the spelling. :)
<p>There are some etymological spellings-- the retention of silent <h>, for
instance, or <b>tshur</b> for 'fire', pronounced <b>chur</b>. (Cadhinor was
<b>turos</b>; the Verdurian spelling retains the initial <b>T</b>, because it
was important as an alchemical symbol.
<p>Verdurian tends to assimilate prefixes, e.g. im- + dobre = indobren 'adjust'.
But roots are treated morphophonemically (your 'shape' rule), as in
<b>sramdonec</b> 'shame-giving'.
<p>I may get into this angle more if and when I get around to documenting
Old Verdurian, since before Elena's spelling reform Verdurian had a much
more archaic spelling system.
</i>
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<b>Daan Goedkoop</b>
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