u/sad_lil_abby

1. When there's final devoicing, the phoneme is sometimes notated as the "final" version, like <ząb> /'zɔmp/ in polish. Why wouldn't the phoneme represent the underlying /b/?

2. French has a bunch of silent letters that will show up in other forms: <vert> /vɛʁ/ <verte> /vɛʁt/. Wouldn't this show that <vert> does have an underlying /t/? Could we do <vert> /vɛʁt/ verte /vɛʁtə/ instead? (and we also add œ for <eu>, idk)

3. Maltese has a fairly common letter <għ> which can be silent, [ħ] or it diphthongises the vowel after it. There's words like <erbgħa>/ˈɛrba/ "4" vs <erbgħin> /ɛrˈbajn/ "14", <ħamsa> /ˈħam.sa/ "5" and <ħamsin> /ħamˈsiːn/ "15".

I can see why these might not be referred as phonemes, but then what term do i use? Is there one? It's related to the letters in spelling in the sense that they "feel" more historical but idk. The biggest question for me is that i fear if i use only phonemes as a referrence, i'd have to say that a lot of things are just random in the present day. i mean that'd be accurate for the spoken language but it still feels outlandish. It's like saying word final /p/ randomly turns into /b/ in polish.

https://preview.redd.it/k5l1cr4nqyih1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7deb631a208fc20021a9fcb2dcd583f97f7afcbe

It kinda is an anti-romanisation in a way but i had to add a flair i guess

Notes:

1. this is a work in progress, much of it is subject to change

2. it comes from present-day english and present-day mandarin (simplified)

3. the script is relatively morphemic, one block might contain two syllables

4. like japanese kana, parts can stack to make new syllables, eg: 合 [h] + 右 [ju] = hju

5. some parts furthur simplified, eg: removing 禾 in 私 [s], 尸 in 尼 [n], and 口 in 各 [g]

6. flat strokes are added to mark voiced fricatives (above them) and alternative vowels (below them)

7. [ɐ] is not consistently represented, sometimes as [æ] modified and sometimes as [ɔ]

8. for now the semantic radicals only limited to those commonly used in chinese and can only be find on the left

9. variant letters exist to add variety or to distinguish between words and suffixes, eg: 儿 ɚ in middle 尔 ɚ at bottom, 土 to/to- 兔 too/two, and 因 in 印 in-/en- (yes i know those are not the same morpheme but i'm lazy)

I'm a native speaker from Gongzau and I'm referring to tone 1 (high-flat) and tone 7 (high-falling). I've searched through this subreddit only ​to find 1 post posted 10 years ago in regard to this.

Speaking from my experience, those tones are​ distinct. Yes, 7 ​changes to 1 ​when followed by tone 1 or 7, and 7 is not allowed in checked syllables, but pronouncing Di1 ​​(plural counter?) as Di7 or pronouncing Do7 (many) as Do1 sounds jarring​. ​​ I also​ ​think ​that ​minimal pairs ​are ​plenty (Saam1 衫​ Saam7 三, Haa1 虾 Haa7 *​欺负 Gam1​​ 柑 Gam7​ 今, Bong1 邦 Bong7 帮, and more), there's even words like Si1Jan4 诗人 Si7Jan4 私人, Sin1Jan4 仙人 Sin7Jan4 先人, and Bing7Seong1 冰箱 Bing7Seong7 冰霜 (note: 冰 is realised as Bing1). I used to journal in a 6-tone romanisation (cuz I didn't​ bother writing kanji) and I have to make a conscious effort to guess if a syllable has tone 1 or 7 when reading it back.

For you​, is high-falling distinct, marginal, in ​free ​variation or just non-existant? I feel like my accent may be a bit peculiar so I wonder how you speak and think about this.