Morpheme Separators
Saul Epstein 
Sun, 11 Jan 1998 11:47:39 -0600

From: Rob Zook <rzook*informix,com>
Date: Saturday, January 10, 1998 3:04 PM
 
> At 10:18 AM 1/10/98 -0600, McReynolds wrote:
>>Just a quick question... why all the periods?  For instance, why do
you 
>>put {er,le'matya} and {iig,plants}?  Did I miss some sort of new
rule
>>concerning affixes?
> 
> Well, I would not call it a new "rule" yet. I made a suggestion a
while 
> back (I forget exactly when), that we put a period between two
> consonents, when the consonents form a syllable boundry and not a
> consonent cluster.
> 
> So when adding a particle to a word, and a consonent at the end of
a 
> particle butts against a consonent on the end of the word it joins,
it 
> would seem very strange to me to blend them into a consonent
cluster. 

I'm sure it does. It's very natural though.

> So that period represents a little pause. Like the little 
> pause between the n and the s in <consists>. Now in English we do
> combine them into consonent clusters. I would not say,
"con,sist,s",
> I would say "con,sis,ts" while the singular has pauses like
"con,sist".
> 
> I don't like that shifting of syllables without some definite
rules.
> Frankly, I don't like the idea at all, but then English has never
been 
> one of may favorite languages :-)

The rules governing such things are part of a language's phonology,
and English is not alone in its accommodation of the physical limits
of the brain and the articulatory aparatus. We can spend time working
out the rules that govern such things for Vulcan if it will make you
feel better.

I do see value in separating stems and affixes in the context of a
morphological discussion, and it's even possible that Vulcan might be
written out in such a way. I agree with McReynolds, though, that
hyphens would be easier on the eyes.

--
from Saul Epstein
www,johnco,cc,ks,us/~sepstein
"Surak ow'phaaper thes'hi thes'tca'; thes'phaadjar thes'hi
suraketca'."
							-- K'dvarin Urswhl'at