Friday, February 6, 2009

ALPHABET p 12

===begin p 12===

Of the consonants, q (que) has been
omitted, as its power is obtained by
using kw. In writing the language,
to some there may appear to be a need
of two more vowels, one to represent
the long sound of i, as in time, and
another to represent the sound of ou
as in loud.

These, however, are both compound
sounds, as i is equivalent to ae pro-
nounced quickly, and ou (diphthtong)
to au. Instead therefore, of i, long, a
is written, followed by y; and for ou,
a is followed by w, as the beginning
of the sound of y, is e; and the begin-
ning of w, is u, or oo:

Thus,
na-yae in stead [sic] of ni-ae
wa-yae-rae instead of wi-ae-rae
me-nta-wae in stead [sic] of me-ntou-ae
ra-wae in stead [sic] of rou-ae

The vowels, in the conjugation of
verbs, and in a few other situations

===end p 12===

Lance's notes on p. 12



The first paragraph is a little puzzling, as
Ioway does not currently have a kw sound
of which I am aware. Perhaps Hamilton
and Irvin meant the xw sound, as in
xwanye "to fall away; to be lost."

The second paragraph is just an explanation
of how they decided to write diphthongs;
their choice corresponds with today's
practice, but was at variance with some
contemporaries'.

The examples they give are:

"na-yae in stead [sic] of ni-ae"
= naye = likely here they meant "to stand,"
which we now render as nayi

"wa-yae-rae instead of wi-ae-rae"
= wayere "who"

"me-nta-wae in stead [sic] of me-ntou-ae"
= mintawe "my; mine"

"ra-wae in stead [sic] of rou-ae"
= rawe "to gnaw; to count"