Re: Latin vowels?

From: Doug Ewell (dewell@adelphia.net)
Date: Mon Sep 09 2002 - 11:51:21 EDT


Radovan Garabik <garabik at melkor dot dnp dot fmph dot uniba dot sk>
understands:

> Conclusion? It is pointless to talk about vowels and consonants,
> if you are speaking about a _writing_ system (especially disregarding
> the language it concerns).
> Vowels and consonants make sense when speaking about pronunciation.

Specifically, this highlights the difference between a script
(language-independent, like "Latin") and a writing system
(language-dependent, like "English," "Welsh," or even "Latin").
Consonants and vowels are about pronunciation, which means they are
language-dependent.

And to make matters worse, there are semi-consonants, semi-vowels,
glides, and GOK what else. Of course, Mark was only differentiating
between "vowels" and "non-vowels," but that may not make things much
easier; I still wouldn't know where to put English "y".

-Doug Ewell
 Fullerton, California



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