Re: [bpfk] official cmavo form

Hello BPFK,

I am delurking to inform you that I voted for 1.3.1 (allow CGV in cmevla, disallow it in fu'ivla/ma'ovla). Feel free to disregard my (non-member) vote if you wish.

My vote comes with the qualification that the special GV cases /ii/ and /uu/ be made illegal (as others have suggested). With all respect, it strikes me as perverse to be seriously considering whacking harmless syllables like /miu/ and /kua/ from cmevla when sequences like /lei/, /leii/, /leiii/ and /leiiii/ are all legal and contrastive, as are presumably /u'u/, /uu'u/, /u'uu/, etc.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the only two common words that contain these pairs are {.ii} and {.uu}. I would suggest replacing these with {.iai} and {.uau}, but they can also be grandfathered in as (the only) exceptions. Unless there is something that I have overlooked, removing /ii/ & /uu/ from the language seems so sensible and harmless that I would suggest that the BPFK drop the gavel and make it so prior to deciding the broader GV issue.

Once /ii/ & /uu/ are removed, then the monosyllabic and glided disyllabic realizations of any diphthong could be in free variation. So /ia/ could be realized as either [ja] or [ija].

I would also advocate the following:

- forbid GV in fu'ivla/ma'ovla except after /./ (word-initially). The pronunciation of disyllabic /ia/ and that of /i'a/ are too close.

- allow GV in cmevla. there would be no hard rules on realization, but these might be regarded as suggested guidelines:
- pronounce /iV/ monosyllabic after onset /p b f v m k g x ./
- pronounce /uV/ monosyllabic after onset /t d s z c j k g x ./
- if preceding C could be part of a valid coda, then the following GV is initial and therefore monosyllabic. e.g. {.sonias.} = /.son,ias./ for Sonya.
- disyllabic elsewhere

- I don't see a problem with /eu/ and /ou/ in cmevla. If /ii/ and /uu/ were gone, then these could be pronounced [ewu] and [owu], just as /ei/ could be pronounced [eji].

- forbid /'/ adjacent to ANY underlying glide in ALL words. If /'/ is [h], then /poi'i/ sounds just like /poixi/. Perhaps /poi'i/ could be replaced with /po'ei/. This rule wouldn't solve all problems with /'/, but it would help.

Best regards,
-Mike S.

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