Scrabble (R)

[Mike Cleven]

Christopher Schindler wrote:
>
> LaXayEm, kanawi Laksta.
> ukuk Scrabble hihi-ikta khapa chinuk wawa ukuk Lush tEmtEm.
> Laksta kEmtEks - khapa chinuk wawa yaka tenas wawa Laska ts!Em ikta qanchi
> lili ?
>
> (Does anyone know the letter frequencies for CJ, perhaps based on Thomas
> spellings,
> sound frequencies, or some other basis?)
>
> alta nayka Latawa.

Yikes; that gets into the whole orthography thing, whether IPA/GR or
Latinate "Thomas" or some other "traditional" ("ahnkuttie", as Nadja
refers to it) form.  Hmmmmmm.  Keekwulee spread across triple word
scores, now lemme see............

On a related topic, is there any consistency or pattern to syllabic or
subsyllabic formations in Chinook, i.e. ma-, tla-, ka-, sk-, -ook,
-ooks, -ugh, -ash and so on; are there any words that are completely
unique in this regard? - something like the English "orange" (the
closest rhyme to which is "door hinge", apparently, said with a drunken
slur....; I think you could get away with borage or porridge, however).
I've often (infamously) suggested that a set of semisyllabic glyphs
adapted from Duployan could conceivably consitute a "font", or rather a
script (since it's not exactly alphabetic); figuring out all the main
syllables and their frequency would have a purpose here.

MC