"o", "u", and "u"

[Frances Karttunen]

Dear John,

The orthographic "u" of "hu" and "cu" is not a vowel like the other two.
It's part of digraphs for the consonants /w/ and (resorting to yet another
digraph because I can't do superscripts in email) /kw/. This latter
represents labialized /k/ as in English quick or Spanish cuando, but
permitted phonotactically at both the beginning and end of syllables in
Nahuatl.

So you are really only looking for two distinct vowel symbols.  The hu and
cu are predictable packages.  Won't u and o do?

Fran

----------
>From: John Sullivan <jsullivan at prodigy.net.mx>
>To: nahuat-l <nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu>
>Subject: "o", "u", and "u"
>Date: Thu, Jan 11, 2001, 1:00 PM
>

> I am working on a nahuatl document from los altos de jalisco whose writer
> seems to distinguish between the "o", its "u" variant, and the "u" of "cu"
> and "hu". The "u" in "hu" and "cu" is written with the normal letter "u" (it
> has a little tail). The "u" which is a pronunciation variant of the "o" is
> written with a letter "o" that is open at the top, kind of like a "u"
> without the tail. The "real" "o" is written with a normal closed letter "o".
> Has anyone seen this fenomenon before? Is it documented? Also, when I get
> this published, I would like to distinguish between the three sounds in the
> transcription by using three different letters. Can a linguist give me
> advice on an appropriate symbol for the "u" variant?
>     John Sullivan
>     Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
>