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<div><i><br>
<font size="+1" color="#000000"><br>
</font></i></div>
<div><i>To members of the KLANG-LIST,<font size="+1" color="#000000">
with apologies:</font></i></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><i><br></i></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><i><br></i></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><i>I had intended to Š what's
the word? "lurk", "loiter", "lounge"
(something else in initial /l/, maybe)? silently a while, with good
netiquette, before jumping in. But since I was careless
enough to send a personal note to the list membership, I might as well
(with my apologies) at least distribute a note on the work I referred
to there. </i></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><i><br></i></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">I have been working on initial
consonants as "phonesthemes" or (better) submorphemes.
This research began in Hebrew, where it has gone far enough to prove
itself pedagogically: My textbook for high-elementary students
teaches students how they can guess the meaning of unknown roots (i.e.
triconsonantal roots) on the basis of the initial consonant, e.g.
roots beginning with /p/ have something to do with "opening
up", including "open (mouth, face), disperse, explode,
surprise, Š"</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">This would be an expectable
equ<u>ivalent</u> of "assonance" submorphemes (using
Bolinger's division) like English<i> gl-, spr-,</i> etc, since initial
clusters arise by morphophonology. (The first two consonants of
the root corm a cluster only under "accidental" conditions,
e.g. the plural but not the singular because of accent
shift.) </font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">But I found the same situation
(far less regularly than in Hebrew, but convincing to me nevertheless)
not only in Arabic and Mandarin (also no clusters), but also in
Russian and -- with the help of Margaret Magnus' work -- English.
I find Magnus' attempts to build up composite meanings for clusters
less convincing: Cluster submorphemes seem to me to be far less
regular subphenomena of initial consonants as submorphemes, as I argue
in my articles. For example,<i> gl-</i> meaning "bright
light" (revised from Bolinger) but also<i> gloom</i> and other
counter-examples, all fit under /#g-/ = "overwhelm";
/#gl-/ accounts for subsets of various submeanings on various sides of
the "overwhelm" meaning-spectrum, although partly
gravitating towards "light".</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">One more note: I use the
term "letters" in Hebrew because the phenomenon is a bit
more regular in the written language, because of some intricate
changes in the morphophonemics of the modern language.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><u><b><br></b></u></font></div>
<div><font size="+1"
color="#000000"><u><b>articles:</b></u></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßHebrew Key-Letters¹, SHOFAR,
Summer 2003.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßotiyot mafteahh be¹ivrit¹
[ŒKey-Letters in Hebrew¹], HADOAR VOL. 82, #4, 2003.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßKabbalah & Hebrew
Key-Letters¹, forthcoming in BULLET. HEBR. HIGHER ED.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßArabic Key-Consonants¹
forthcoming in JOURNAL OF ARABIC & ISLAMIC STUDIES.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br>
<u><b>textbook:</b></u></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><i>The Alef-Bet Puzzle,</i>
Montezuma Publ. (San Diego State University) 2004.</font><br>
<font size="+1" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><u><b>conference
papers:</b></u></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßKabbalah/Sufism and
Hebrew/Arabic Key-Letters¹. Western Jewish Studies Conf., San
Francisco, March 2002.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßotiyot mafteahh behoraat
ivrit¹ [Œkey-letters in teaching Hebrew¹]. NAPH
Conference, July 2002, Beer-Sheva Israel.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßSingle-Segment
Submorphemes¹, Humanities Conference, Hawaii, January
2004.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßKey-Consonants in Semitic¹,
NACAL, San Diego, June 2004.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000">ßHebrew Key-Letters¹, NAPH,
Austin TX, June 2004.</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>see also my web-site (below) on Hebrew key-letters.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><tt>‚‚Ý</tt></div>
<div>prof. Zev bar-Lev<br>
Dept. of Linguistics & Oriental Languages<br>
San Diego State University<br>
San Diego CA 92182<br>
e-mail: zev.bar-Lev@sdsu.edu<br>
web-site: languagebazaar.com</div>
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