Interesting question, to which I'll respond only anecdotally (because I don't know of any such studies). <div><br></div><div>Here at CILLDI this week some savvy Ath (specifically DS) speakers have told me things like "We have many different "d"s: d, dh, ddh..." So there's a mix of the awareness of these sounds as somehow separate from one another, but yes still conceived of as flavors of d. Phonology and literacy colliding...</div>
<div><br></div><div>Andrea<br clear="all"><br>--<br>Andrea L. Berez<br><font size="1">Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics</font><br><font size="1">University of Hawai'i at Mānoa</font><div><font size="1">Director, Kaipuleohone UH Digital Ethnographic Archive</font></div>
<div><font size="1">Technology reviews editor, <i>Language Documentation & Conservation</i><br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www2.hawaii.edu/~aberez" target="_blank">http://www2.hawaii.edu/~aberez</a></font></font></div>
<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 9:22 AM, Mike Morgan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mwmbombay@gmail.com" target="_blank">mwmbombay@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I would imagine that it would depend on the existing level of literacy<br>
in a majority language, and what orthographic conventions are used by<br>
that majority language community. If most members of a community are<br>
already used to the idea that "th" is a separate sound but is<br>
alphabetized after "tg" and before "ti", then presumably following<br>
this practice in creating an orthography would make things easier.<br>
<br>
Though, of course, making things easier is NOT ALWAYS the primary<br>
goal, and sometimes OPPOSING any existing majority language practices<br>
is preferred as it increases the degree of distinctiveness of the<br>
minority language.<br>
<br>
as I said though, although I think I have seen studies on this<br>
somewhere, I have no idea where or when they might have been...<br>
<br>
<br>
PS technology can also enter into the mix: Welsh has a long history of<br>
treating "ch", "dd" and "ll" as separate digraphic characters, and<br>
alphabetizing them accordingly (so "ch" follows "cz", etc). With the<br>
advent of word processing, but before special software which<br>
alphabetized according to welsh rules, things started to change, and<br>
many people followed English practices ("ch" after "cg"). Now that<br>
such software is ubiquitous, it is (mostly) back to tradition...<br>
<br>
mwm<br>
<div><div><br>
On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 8:40 PM, Gary Holton <<a href="mailto:gmholton@alaska.edu" target="_blank">gmholton@alaska.edu</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hello,<br>
><br>
> I know this list doesn't get a lot of traffic, so apologies in advance<br>
> for spamming you with this query. For years I've accepted without<br>
> question the orthodoxy which sorts dictionary entries by digraph<br>
> rather than by single characters. This makes obvious sense, since<br>
> digraphs such as th or even trigraphs such as tł' are single phonemes<br>
> and hence shouldn't be relegated to secondary status within a<br>
> dictionary. On the other hand, we also know that many languages do<br>
> just fine treating digraphs as separate characters for the purposes of<br>
> dictionary sorting (e.g., English has no "th" section; Malay has no<br>
> "ng" section). So, my question is, does anyone know of any usability<br>
> studies -- or even just subjective account -- comparing the relative<br>
> advantages of each approach within a language maintenance situation?<br>
><br>
> Gary Holton<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div></div><span><font color="#888888">--<br>
mwm || *U* C > || mike || мика || माईक || マイク || மாய்க் (aka Dr Michael W<br>
Morgan)<br>
sign language linguist / linguistic typologist<br>
academic adviser to "Nepal Sign Language Training and Research Centre"<br>
project<br>
NDFN, Kathmandu, Nepal<br>
</font></span></blockquote></div><br></div>