User:Selguha/Comparison of orthographies
This page is mainly about the alphabets of different engineered languages. Work in progress; missing citations for now. Newest material at bottom.
'Diaphonemic' comparison
One way to compare alphabets is to borrow and slightly stretch the concept of the diaphoneme. This abstract unit is a bundle of closely related phonemes in different varieties of a language. Where two constructed languages have similar phonologies, it can similarly make sense to group their phonemes together into meta-units for purposes of orthographic comparison. So, for instance, one language may have a constrast between /s/ and /ʂ/ and another may have a very similar contrast between /s/ and /ʃʷ/; if neither language has another voiceless sibilant, it makes sense to consider /ʂ/ and /ʃʷ/ as one diaphoneme. Traditionally diaphonemes are transcribed with double slashes, e.g. //ʃ//.
The following chart compares alphabets by means of diaphonemes whose representation tends to vary across orthographies. A blank space indicates the absence of a diaphoneme in a language. The languages are listed in an arbitrary order; in earlier versions of the chart, languages were arranged in an order highlighting their similarities.
English | Esperanto | Pandunia | Globasa | Hanyu Pinyin | Malay | Latejami | Xorban | Loglan | Lojban | Toaq | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
//ʔ// | ∅ / k1 | q | , | . | ’ 2 | |||||||||||||||||
//t͡s// | c | c | c | |||||||||||||||||||
//d͡z// | dz3 | z4 | z | |||||||||||||||||||
//t͡ʃ// | ch | ĉ | ch | q5 | c | c | ch | |||||||||||||||
//d͡ʒ// | j | ĝ | zh | j | j | j | j | |||||||||||||||
//z// | z | z | z | z | z | z | z | z | z | |||||||||||||
//ʃ// | sh | ŝ | x | x | sh | x | sy | x | c | c | c | sh | ||||||||||
//ʒ// | zh | ĵ | q | j | j | j | ||||||||||||||||
//x// | kh | ĥ | h | h6 | h | kh | x | x | x | |||||||||||||
//h// | h | h | h | h7 | ’ 8 | h | ’ | h | ||||||||||||||
//w// | w | ŭ | w / u | w | w / u | w | w | w | u | u | w | |||||||||||
//j// | y | j | y / i | y | y / i | y | y | y | i | i | y |
1 Intervocalic glottal stop is implied when certain vowels appear back-to-back or doubled, such as in the word kemuliaan /kəmuli.aʔan/ 'glory; dignity'. Syllable-finally, glottal stop is written k.
2 Only represented intervocalically..
3 There is disagreement over whether Esperanto has a /d͡z/ phoneme. Kalocsay and Waringhien include /d͡z/ in Esperanto's inventory in their Plena Analiza Gramatiko de Esperanto (1985; p. 47).
4 For present purposes only, I treat Standard Chinese's unaspirated stops as voiced consonants; Pinyin uses traditionally voiced consonant letters for these sounds.
5 I have also collapsed the Chinese retroflex and alveolopalatal series into the diaphonemic category of postalveolars. Admittedly this reflects the perceptual habits of the English speaker; it may be more intuitive to Chinese speakers to group the retroflex and alveolar sounds together as apicals. That would be less useful for this chart, however.
6 The phoneme written ⟨h⟩ is allowed to vary between [x] and [h] in Pandunia; I have chosen arbitrarily to designate this phoneme /x/.
7 The Latejami phoneme is allowed to vary between a dorsal fricative and a glottal fricative or stop; its main allophones can be inferred to be [ç], [x], [χ], [h] and [ʔ].
8 This sound is actually voiced, /ɦ/, with permitted allophones including [ɣ] and [ʁ].
Letter-assignment comparison
Constructed languages discussed below do not yet include the worldlangs Pandunia and Globasa.
Grapheme | English | Pinyin | Malay | Latejami | Xorban | Loglan | Lojban | Toaq |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
’ (apostrophe) | .1 | θ | h | ʔ | ||||
, (comma) | ʔ | .1 | ||||||
. | ʔ | |||||||
c | k / s | t͡sʰ | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃ | ʃ | ʃ | ʃ | t͡sʰ |
ch | t͡ʃ | t͡ʂʰ | t͡ɕʰ | |||||
h | h | x | h | h~x | θ | h | h | |
j | d͡ʒ | t͡ɕ | d͡ʒ | d͡ʒ | ʒ | ʒ | ʒ | d͡ʑ |
q | t͡ɕʰ | ʒ | ʔ | θ | ŋ | |||
sh | ʃ | ʂ | ɕ | |||||
w | w | w | w | w | w | y | w | |
x | ks~gz | ɕ | ks | ʃ | x | x | x | |
y | j | j | j | j | j | ə | ə | j |
z | z | t͡s | z | z | z | z | z | d͡z |
zh | ʒ | t͡ʂ |
1 This is the IPA symbol indicating a syllable boundary or a hiatus (a syllable boundary between nuclei without any intervening consonants).
English | Spanish | Italian | German | Albanian | Pinyin | Malay | Latejami | Xorban | Loglan | Lojban | Toaq | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
’ | – | – | – | – | – | . | – | – | ɦ | ʔ | h | – |
. | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ʔ | ʔ | – |
c | k / s | k / s~θ | k / t͡ʃ | k / t͡s | t͡s | t͡sʰ | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃ | ʃ | ʃ | ʃ | t͡sʰ |
ch | t͡ʃ | ch | k | x | – | t͡ʂʰ | – | – | – | – | – | t͡ɕʰ |
ç | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
dh | – | – | – | – | ð | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
g | g / d͡ʒ | g~ɣ / x | g / d͡ʒ | g | g | g̊ | g | g | g | g | g | g |
gh | g / f~∅ | – | g | – | – | – | ɣ~x | – | – | – | – | |
gj | – | – | – | – | ɟ~d͡ʑ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
gn | – | – | ɲ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
h | h / ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | h / ː | h | x | h | h~x | θ | h | – | h |
j | d͡ʒ | x | (j) | j | j | d̥͡ʑ̥ | d͡ʒ | d͡ʒ | ʒ | ʒ | ʒ | d͡ʑ |
kh | (x) | – | – | – | – | – | x | – | – | – | – | – |
ll | – | ʎ~ʝ | – | – | ɫ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
ng | ŋ / ŋg | ŋg | ŋg | ŋg | ŋg | ŋ | ŋ | ŋg | ŋg | ŋg | ŋg | – |
nj | – | – | – | – | ɲ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
ny | – | – | – | – | – | – | ɲ | – | – | – | – | – |
ñ | (nj) | ɲ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
q | – | – | – | – | c~t͡ɕ | t͡ɕʰ | – | ʒ | ʔ | θ | – | ŋ |
qu | kw | kw / k | kw | k / kv | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
r | ɻ | ɾ | r | ʁ / ɐ̯ | ɾ | ɻ~ʐ / ʵ | r | r | r | r | r | ɾ |
rr | – | r | – | – | r | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
s | s | s | s | z | s | s | s | s | s | s | s | s |
sc | sk / s | sk / s | sk / ʃ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
sch | (ʃ) | – | – | ʃ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
sh | ʃ | – | – | – | ʃ | ʂ | – | – | – | – | – | ɕ |
sy | – | – | – | – | – | – | ʃ | – | – | – | – | – |
ß | – | – | – | s | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
th | θ / ð | – | – | t | θ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
v | v | b~β | v | f | v | – | v~f | v | v | v | v | – |
w | w | (w) | (w) | v | – | w | w | w | w | y | – | w |
x | ks~gz / z | ks~gz | ks~gz? | ks | d͡z | ɕ | ks | ʃ | x | x | x | – |
xh | – | – | – | – | d͡ʒ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
y | j | ʝ / i̯ | (j) | ??? | y | j | j | j | j | ə | ə | j |
z | z | s~θ | t͡s~d͡z | t͡s | z | d̥͡z̥ | z | z | z | z | z | – |
zh | ʒ | – | – | – | ʒ | d̥͡ʐ̥ | – | – | – | – | – | – |
jbopomofo: A possible mapping of Zhuyin (Bopomofo) characters to Lojban
Lojban letter | IPA value | Zhuyin letter | Pinyin analogue | Original IPA value |
---|---|---|---|---|
b | [b] | ㄅ | b | [p] |
p | [p] | ㄆ | p | [pʰ] |
m | [m] | ㄇ | m | [m] |
f | [f] | ㄈ | f | [f] |
v | [v] | ㄪ† | v | [v] |
d | [d] | ㄉ | d | [t] |
t | [t] | ㄊ | t | [tʰ] |
n | [n] | ㄋ | n | [n] |
l | [l] | ㄌ | l | [l] |
r | [r~ɾ~ɹ~ɻ~ʁ] | ㄦ | er | [aɻ], [ɻ] |
g | [g] | ㄍ | g | [k] |
k | [k] | ㄎ | k | [kʰ] |
x | [x] | ㄏ | h | [x] |
dj | [dʒ~dʐ] | ㄓ | zh | [tʂ] |
tc | [tʃ~tʂ] | ㄔ | ch | [ʈʂʰ] |
c | [ʃ~ʂ] | ㄕ | sh | [ʂ] |
j | [ʒ~ʐ] | ㄖ | r | [ɻ~ʐ] |
dz | [dz] | ㄗ | z | [ts] |
ts | [ts] | ㄘ | c | [tsʰ] |
s | [s] | ㄙ | s | [s] |
z | [z] | ㄭ† | -i | [ɻ̩~ʐ̩], [ɹ̩~z̩] |
a | [a] | ㄚ | a | [a] |
e | [ɛ] | ㄝ | (-i)e, ê | [ɛ] |
i | [i], [j] | ㄧ | yi, i | [i] |
o | [o] | ㄛ | o | [ɔ] |
u | [u], [w] | ㄨ | wu, -u | [u] |
y | [ə] | ㄜ | e | [ɤ] |
ai | [aɪ̯] | ㄞ | ai | [aɪ̯] |
au | [aʊ̯] | ㄠ | ao | [ɑʊ̯] |
ei | [eɪ̯] | ㄟ | ei | [eɪ̯] |
oi | [oɪ̯] | ㄩ | yu, -ü | [y] |
' | [h] | ˙ | N/A | N/A |
, | [.] | ‧ | ' | [.] |
. | [ʔ] | 。 | N/A | N/A |
capitalization | primary stress | 「...」 | N/A | N/A |
† The characters ㄪ and ㄭ are not used in modern Zhuyin.