[Spellyans] -ssy-

[Craig Weatherhill]

The danger, as I see it, Michael, is to apply rules too rigidly to the  
language (which was one of my major objections to KK - not that there  
is any comparison, let me add.  From my viewpoint, KK deprived the  
language of life and character: to use Peter Pool's description,  
robotic).  We mustn't fall into the same trap.  A few foibles and  
irregularities allow a language to breathe; to have vibrancy and   
life. Don't misunderstand me - KS hasn't got to anywhere near that  
stage. Basically, it's great (although I have one or two small  
misgivings) but we must be careful to ensure that we don;t go down the  
wrong path.

Craig



On 14 Kev 2009, at 15:53, Daniel Prohaska wrote:

> Just took a quick look and I found 4 attestations, 2 each in TH and  
> CW – interesting:encressyens, encresshys (TH) and incressya,  
> incresshys (CW). I give both pronunciations in my dictionary:  
> [ɛN”krɛsj at ns] ~ [ɛN”krɛS at ns].
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Everson
> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 4:40 PM
>
> On 14 Dec 2009, at 15:17, Craig Weatherhill wrote:
>
> > It's also a question of whether we are in danger of taking things
> > too far, which is a concern of mine.
>
> “Taking *what* too far, Craig?
>
> We have a rule. -ssya is [sjə], as in passya, encressya.”
>
> CW also has vb.adj. passhes, so we may have palatalisation.
>
> “We have a rule, -ssy- in other positions is [ʃ], as in passyon,  
> posessyon.”
>
> TH has possessyon, so we may have [pO”sEsj at n] or [pO”sES at n], no  
> [z] as in English - perhaps?
> Dan
>
> “Since -ssy- has more than one reading, we need to have rules for  
> the distribution. So we need to know what -ssyans will stand for. It  
> looks to me like it will be [sjəns].
>
> But there's nothing "dangerous" about asking such questions. KS is  
> meant to be precise, as precise as we can make it.”
>
>
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