Re: Orthography Question

Steg Belsky wrote:
> So, here's the problem.  I have a friend who just moved to NYC from
> Belgium a few years ago.  Her name is Ire`ne, pronounced correctly as far
> as i can tell as /iREn/ , where /R/ is the French "r". (most people just
> call her /ajri:n/)
> I've figured out two possible ways of representing her name in
> Rokbeigalmki:
>
> _ir~en_ /i*En/ (* = flap R) :  this uses the normal Rokbeigalmki type of
> "r" sound, which is a flap R very unlike the French R (what is the French
> R exactly?)
>
> _igh~en_ /iGEn/ (G = velar voiced fricative) :  this uses a different
> Rokbeigalmki sound, <gh>, which sounds much closer to the actual R sound
> of Ire`ne.
>
> So, does anyone have a preference / suggestion for which i should use?
> How do you represent foreign words/names in your conlangs?
>
> -Stephen (Steg)
I would use /iGEn/, assuming that fits into your system and doesn't
"sound funny" (of course, foreign names often sound funny, so maybe that
would be good). I believe the French R is a uvular voiced fricative, so
a velar voiced fricative would be pretty close.

I think the idea of using a ~ is very interesting. Never thought of that
myself. The closest equivalent I can think of in any natlang is how
Japanese uses katakana to represent foreign words (except for Chinese
words borrowed long ago).