Re: A Request for Clarification: Syllables
Saul Epstein 
Fri, 7 Nov 1997 15:10:30 -0600

From: Rob Zook <rzook*informix,com>
Subject: Re: A Request for Clarification: Syllables

>At 12:29 PM 11/7/97 -0600, Saul wrote:
>>From: Rob Zook <rzook*informix,com>
>>Date: Friday, November 07, 1997 11:25 AM
>>
>>>Marketa,
>>>
>>>I have a little better list of words we need syllable rules on. BTW,
these
>>>are spelled with Saul's alternate transcription scheme. I have added
>>>a possible syllable seperation. We need you or your father to agree
>>>or disagree.
>>
>>Actually, we don't. For one thing, this information isn't critical now,
and
>>may not ever be. For another, it may not be anything our experts currently
>>know.
>
>Without the rules for forming syllables we cannot figure out what sets
>of consonents in the middle of a word are or are not consonent clusters.

True.

>We cannot even tell how to correctly pronounce the words we do have.

Well, probably not. I think knowing what <'> is will largely resolve that,
however.

>I realize I'm thinking ahead a bit here, but not much I think.
>
>For any given syllable in a language one could find up to 24 different
>variations on how a syllable is formed if we take into consideration
>consonent clusters and dipthongs.
>
>CV    CCV    VC    VVC
>CVV   CCVV   VCC   VVCC
>CVC   CCVC   VCV   VVCV
>CVCC  CCVCC  VCVV  VVCVV
>CVVC  CCVVC  VCCV  VVCCV
>CVVCC CCVVCC VCCVV VVCCVV

Actually, the last 4 items in the last two columns have two syllables, so
that's 16. But if one includes 3-consonant clusters like spl- or -rst, there
would be..,32?

>The way syllables are formed in the middle of the words are also
>probably different then how they are formed at the beginning and the
>end.

If you mean that the kinds of consonants and clusters permitted at the
beginnings and ends of a syllable depends on the syllable's position in a
word, that's true. But we can approach the description of such rules now.
For instance, if we find that the sequence #NC
(word-boundary+nasal+consonant) is not permitted, but the sequence VNC
(vowel+nasal+consonant) is permitted, then the hypothetical word /omqee/ is
possible, regardless of whether it breaks as om-qee or omq-ee or even
o-mqee.

To be sure, things can get more complicated than this. What about a word
like /omqprii/? If /mq/ is permitted after a vowel, /qp/ is permitted except
at the end of words, and /pr/ is permitted before a vowel, is VmqprV
permitted? Or do we need to further specify that NC must be preceded by a
vowel and cannot be followed by a stop?

When I mentioned the problem of knowing where syllables break, I didn't mean
to bring it up as something that needed to be solved, but merely as
something that needed to be kept in mind -- because there may be no clear
solution.

Then again, there might be. It's definitely worth asking about.

>The distribution of syllables in a language probably is not random. If
>we do a computer generate set of Vulcan words, we need that information
>to develop the proper distribution of syllables in the final set.

I know. But an elaborate enough set of phonological rules should suffice.
Putting them into algorithm-appropriate language may be beyond us, of
course...

--
from Saul Epstein
liberty <at> uit <dot> net
www <dot> johnco <dot> cc <dot> ks <dot> us <slash> <tilde> sepstein
"Surak ow'phaaper thes'hi thes'cha'; thes'phaadjar thes'hi surakecha'."
                                     -- K'dvarin Urswhl'at