From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Nov 14 2000 - 15:36:02 EST
on 11/14/00 12:02 PM, Wayne Leman wrote:
> The same way it was marked after it had an alphabet, by speakers pronouncing
> those elements of the language which indicated aspect. Alphabets don't
> create any linguistic elements of languages, they simply allow those
> elements to be recorded in written form. Languages all over the world have
> aspect systems, tense systems, and mixed tense-aspect systems, regardless of
> whether or not those languages have an alphabet yet.
Wayne,
Yea but . . .
If we are talking about Hellenistic Greek there was no fixed method of
pronunciation to communicate this feature. To the extent that the aspect is
encoded in the vowels it is lost even in speech when you have an
international language where vocalization is regional.
To illustrate, lets say you have Jew from Alexandria (Egypt) talking to a
Jew from Colossae in Greek. Is the Jew from Alexandria going to stop the
other fellow in mid sentence and say "Wait a minute, I didn't quite catch
your aspect in that last remark?"
I know what you are driving at but you have not connived me yet. I think
tying this whole thing to something as variable as vowel sounds is anchoring
it in thin air.
Vowel sounds are wild cards to a certain extent. Particularly in an
international language. Yesterday I was talking to a Polish man and a German
in Seahurst Park. The conversation was in English. I never once had to ask
them for a repeat because of a muddled vowel sound of which there were many.
Clay
--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
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