LINGUIST List 6.113

Wed 25 Jan 1995

Misc: Eskimo snow/Scottish rain, Open letter to _Language_, IPA

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1. Caoimhin P. ODonnaile, Eskimo snow and Scottish rain
2. "Dr. Jacob Caflisch", Re: 5.1470 Open letter to _Language_
3. "idu0pnlucla.mvs.edu", Re: 6.100 Sum: IPA history & haceks,

I don't know about Eskimo words for snow, but Scottish Gaelic has a
special word "turadh" for when it stops raining!

Compare:

 Tha an t-uisge ann.
 is the water in it
 "It is raining"

 Tha an turadh ann.
 is the dry-spell in it
 "It has stopped raining."

Also:
 Rinn e turadh san fheasgar.
 Made it a dry-spell in the afternoon
 "It stopped raining (for a while) in the afternoon.

 Kevin Donnelly

Message 2: Re: 5.1470 Open letter to _Language_

Dear colleagues. I also wish to request at least a review of the work
*Opyt sravnenija nostraticheskix jazykov* of the late V. M. Illich-Svitych.
Right now there are folks very much interested in the idea of *Nostratic
Hypothesis*. I am one of those.

Dr. Jacob Caflisch, Sr.
Theoretical Linguistics & Slavics
Sometime Director, Polish Program
UNIV. OF SOUTH FLORIDA
Tampa 33620.

Message 3: Re: 6.100 Sum: IPA history & haceks,

Stemberger suggests that North American linguists who use haceks are
following a tradition which is just as international as that of the
International Phonetic Association, which he labels a Western European
organization. Even a cursory glance at the IPA membership list would
have shown him that the IPA is an international body, with many North
American members. It is governed by an elected Council, with over half
the members coming from outside Western Europe, several of the
Council being from the United States, others from Eastern Europe
(Poland and Russia), and others from China, Japan, Australia, Finland,
South Africa, and Nigeria. It is the North American linguists who use
diverse symbols who are not following truly international conventions.

Having said that, let me say that I happen to agree with him that it
would be appropriate to use haceks for palato-alveolar sounds. The
hacek would then be a diacritic marking a natural class of sounds. I
proposed this at the 1989 Kiel convention of the IPA, but I was voted
down by my more conservative colleagues, who consider it important to
keep the IPA as stable as possible. I see their point of view, but prefer
mine. Nevertheless there is no point in having democratically approved
international standards unless one keeps to them, so I will reluctantly
avoid haceks.

Peter Ladefoged