Re: lexicon; comments
Sorik of Vulcan 
Fri, 13 Mar 1998 16:47:56 PST

>From: "Saul Epstein" <locus*planetkc,com>
>To: vulcan-linguistics*shikahr,com,inter,net
>Subject: Re: lexicon; comments
>Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 12:37:01 -0600
>Reply-To: vulcan-linguistics*shikahr,com,inter,net
>
>Quotes from: Sorik of Vulcan
>Date: Wednesday, March 11, 1998 9:10 PM
> 
>> Greetings everyone.
>
>Greetings, Sorik.
> 
>> First off.  Is the suffix or and ong or and?  I've seen both of
>separate 
>> web pages.
>
>As I can't interpret your question, allow me to make a suggestion.
>When referring to an English word, rather than actually using it in a
>sentence, surround it with quotation marks (""); when referring to a
>Vulcan word, surround it with angle-brackets (<>).

**What I meant to write was, "is the suffix for "and" in Vulcan <ang> or 
<ong>. I've seen it both ways.

>
>       -<ong>  "and"
>       -<aj>           "or"            (written as <azh> in the 
original transcrition)
> 
>> Secondly.  Can someone explain the nasalized vowels?  I don't
>really 
>> know what they are suposed to sound like.
>
>Speakers of English may have some difficulty initially in
>understanding, distinguishing, and producing nasalized vowels. This
>is because, in English, all vowels followed by a nasal consonant
>(such as m, n, ng) are nasalized automatically. (This is an instance
>of a phonological process called anticipatory manner assimilation,
>for those who might be curious.) Some dialects of English nasalize
>almost everything, which may make things even more difficult...
>
>Nasality refers to the passage of air through the nasal cavity and
>out the nostrils rather than through the oral cavity and between the
>lips, as is typical. In fact, in order to produce oral sounds, you
>have to raise the back of the roof of your mouth (an area called the
>velum) until it seals off the passage leading from the throat to the
>nose. Nasal sounds are simply sounds made with an incomplete seal.
>
>When a person has a cold, sometimes her velum swells to the point
>that it nearly seals off the nasal cavity even when she intends to
>speak a "normal" oral sound. That's why a person so affected may seem
>to pronounce [m] as [b], [n] as [d], and [ng] as [g]. Saying these
>sets over and over while paying close attention to what your mouth is
>doing (in back) can be a good way to become conscious of the
>difference between oral and nasal articulations. Then, nasalizing a
>vowel is just a matter of preventing your velum from sealing off your
>nose. Being able to do this appropriately, regardless of whether the
>vowel is followed by a nasal consonant or not, will probably take
>some practice, depending on what languages you speak well. Speakers
>of French, Portuguese, and Polish, for instance will probably have no
>difficulty with this at all. I'm not very good at it. ;-)
>
>It has yet to be definitively resolved that nasalization is phonemic
>in Vulcan.
>

**I understand, thanks for the help.  I am learning Vulcan, but find it 
difficult to practice writing sentences because of the presently smaal 
vocab. list.  No pressure Rob.

>> Is the a vowel suposed to be pronounced like Bach, like base, or
>like 
>> bat?
>
>This has yet to be resolved, exactly. We're pretty sure that [a:] is
>as in German "Bach," and StandAmEng "stop." But [a] is a bit of a
>mystery...
>
>> Are you sure that "iw", and "iwl" can easily be distinguished when 
>> spoken?  Is that not important?
>
>"No" to the first, and "I don't know" to the second. The structure of
>the pronouns isn't something I'm particularly happy about, but I
>haven't spared it much attention so far. 

**See, I don't even "like" the fact that "you" is written as <s'>.  I 
think it should be something more concrete, but now it has grown on me, 
and is just as well.

> 
>> Can someone explain the whole "We speaker, and you listeners"
>theme?
>
>ZC Vulcan distinguishes between two first-person plurals, what are
>sometimes referred to as "inclusive 'we'" meaning that "we" includes
>the audience and "exclusive 'we'" meaning that "we" excludes the
>audience. In English this is undistinguished, and frequently the
>cause for momentary misunderstandings. (Do you mean, "only you and
>they," or "all of us?")

Now that makes sense.  I often have problems in communicating with 
others because of the primative nature of English.  (as seen on the 
other list)

Sorik,


"If everyone is unique, then that also makes everyone the same."

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