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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Dear Typology List members, do you think
that language typology on the phonetic level is possible? Why is typology
usually connected with lexics or syntax? I am sure that the typology of the
world languages is possible on the phonetic level, i.e. the typology of
language sound pictures. By the sound picture of a language we
mean the collection of the transcribed texts of this
language. We cannot advise linguists English texts in the usual
English orthography, just like in Gutenberg collection. May be I don't
understand typology on the phonetic level well enough since I have
been studying it for 45 years only, but I understood that the person who wants
to start the research shall have the same problem as I had, have and is
going to have, i.e. to find the texts in tanscription. One can call it a
Phonetic Pictutre as I do. As far as I understand there is not any
reliable programme to transcribe texts by a computer. Anyway, all our texts were
transcribed by hand. And then checked and rechecked. Computer transcribe texts
with many mistakes. We found it for English, Russian, German and many more of
the 168 languages we put into our Phonetic Typology Collection. Now, it looks
that our collection allows us to compare all world languages fed into
it with the help of some 9 phonetic features. Thus, we could tell Russian from
Belorussian, and the rest Slavonic languages, basing just on the Sound Picture
of it. In fact, the sound picture of a language is its Phonetic Corpus. However,
if the Corpora Members really know the transcribed corpora of any language, I
for one, would be very much interested. Please, let me know by sending me a
message to <A href="mailto:yutamb@mail.ru">yutamb@mail.ru</A> Be WELL,
remain yours most typologically and phonetically Yuri Tambovtsev, Novosibirsk,
Russia </FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>