vijayjohn wrote:dEhiN wrote:Were you correcting the Tamil transcription, or saying that that's the way the diphthongs are in Malayalam?
Correcting the IPA
I'm pretty sure I've heard (some) Tamil speakers actually say something like /a͡i/ over /a͡ɪ/. Though perhaps they were saying /aj/ instead?
vijayjohn wrote:What do you mean by "recite the consonant by itself"? Can you give me an example of that?
You already answered it, but I meant the same as "consonant minus a vowel attached" or க். To me that's, in Tamil, a மெய் எழுத்து while உ is a உயிர் எழுத்து and then க is a உயிர்மெய் எழுத்து. I don't know how the alphabet is taught in Malayalam, but my understanding is that in Tamil you learn all the உயிர் எழுத்து, then the மெய் எழுத்து and then the உயிர்மெய் எழுத்து. Or, in other words, க is taught as the consonant க் with the vowel அ. While, it seems to me that in Hindi, when you learn a consonant sign, it's taught as having the inherent vowel in its "normal state" or by default, and then you learn separately what to do to remove the inherent vowel and just have the consonant. I hope that makes sense.
vijayjohn wrote:No, I didn't. I left them out on purpose because I was talking about the phonemic inventory, not the alphabet! This is also why I did not include /n̪/ and /n/ as distinct phonemes in Tamil; yes, there are distinct characters for representing these sounds, but the sounds themselves are in complementary distribution.
Oh I guess I missed that distinction. I was talking about the alphabet.
księżycowy wrote:dEhiN wrote:What's the CIL book like? I'll have to check it out!
CIIL. Central Institute for Indian Languages.
I mean, it's not a bad textbook. It's kinda skimpy on explaining grammar, and everything is in Tamil script. Everything. And they don't start you off learning the script, they just plunge you right in. In their defense though, they are supposed to have a script book too.
I've never understood books that are trying to teach beginners the language and use the script from the beginning! Well...unless you mean that the explanations are in English, but all the Tamil examples are in Tamil script. But I've seen books - in fact the one my Tamil teacher and I use are like this - where everything including the instructions are in the script/language. I guess these type of books are meant to be used with a native teacher?
księżycowy wrote:Damn it, dEhiN! You've got me eyeing my copy of the Chechen Reader for the past three days!
I briefly had a wanderlust for Chechen but that never quite blossomed like it did for Archi.
księżycowy wrote:I mean, I took it out because I'm reorganizing things and trying to sell off some language books.
Free to any Unilanger, just pay shipping!
What books? For me, even if I know I might not get to a book until years later, I'll keep it just in case...! I guess when it comes to language books, I have more of a hoarder mentality. I wonder if it'd be cheaper to pay shipping, or just rent a car and drive down. Probably shipping, but then I wouldn't get a possible opportunity to finally meet a Unilanger in person!