phonoloblog | all things phonology | camba.ucsd.edu/phonoloblog

If you’re reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and a reader of this blog, you may have noticed something curious in the opening pages of the book. The first chapter, “The Other Minister”, more-or-less brings the reader back up to speed on the major events during and since the previous installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by way of the Minister of Magic updating the Prime Minister of Muggles on the goings-on in the magic world. The Prime Minister at times slightly mishears or misunderstands some words spoken by the Minister of Magic, but the way these are represented orthographically is odd. (more…)

Here’s a query: I know that I’ve read one or two articles somewhere in which someone proposes to abbreviate a pair/set of segmental (i.e., non-stress) rules by means of the parentheses notation, where the notation must be interpreted not (simply) as marking optional material, but in the way that it is for abbreviated stress rules: longest expansion first, disjunctive blocking else removal of innermost parenthesized material, repeat. But I’ll be damned if I can remember anything more concrete than that — the rules or the sources. I don’t even know whether I can concoct a hypothetical example that would clarify things better. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

Immediate update: OK, I can come up with an entirely hypothetical example. It’s one I’m sure is impossible, but it’ll at least clarify things. (more…)

A few relatively new conference/workshop announcements of possible interest to readers:

* Seoul Workshop on Phonological Typology
– Seoul in December.
– Abstracts due Aug. 30.

* Old World Conference in Phonology (OCP) 3
– Budapest in January.
– Abstracts due Sept. 7.

* Approaches to Phonological Opacity and Prosodic Phrasing workshops at GLOW
– Barcelona in April.
– Abstracts due Nov. 1

UPDATE: I’d had commenting turned off by accident, but I’ve fixed it now. If you want to add your own anecdotes, feel free!

I’ve been collecting some cute dialect anecdotes over the past few months. I’m ready to share.

(more…)

Language Hat recently linked to Abecedaria, a newish blog by Suzanne McCarthy devoted to writing systems. McCarthy already has quite an archive built up, and I was intrigued to find an entry on a Caroline Islands syllabary (CIS). She links to a proposed Unicode table on Michael Everson’s website for symbols in the syllabary, and to CarolineIslandScript.com, a site devoted to the system that offers a lengthy discussion regarding the its possible historical origins. Its owners (Dan and Andy Koch) really seem to be keen on the notion that CIS is a Woleaian invention, contrary to Reisenberg & Kaneshiro (1960). (more…)