Subject: Re: case-sensitivity and identifiers (was Re: Wide character implementation) From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 17:28:56 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3226238950860301@naggum.net> * Thomas Bushnell, BSG | Does a toneme in Norwegian extend past a single syllable, however? I | don't know the answer to that question. Basically, the whole word is either rising, falling, or rising-falling, and in combining words, the intonation of both words change. For instance, English as a Second Language means something different from English as the Second Language. In Norwegian we have "Norsk som andre sprog" og "Norsk som andresprog", where the former means either "like other langauges" or "as the second language" depending on tone, and is also distinguished from the latter by tone, not by stress. This is particulary funny when those furriners try to find the section in the bookstore that would help them get just this point and doubly funny when the bookstore cannot even spell it correctly, which their all too young information desk attendant could not pick up from the tone difference even though several bystanders could, and laughed, when I tried in vain to point out the fuuny mistake to her. | The tones actually extend beyond just the vowel, and affect timing and | intonation of the whole word, however. But they are assigned to the | stressed vowel only, and are counted as various phonemic variants of that | vowel. | | The situation might work out similarly in Norwegian, dunno. I do not know Classical Attic Greek so I cannot say for certain, but your brief description makes me believe there is a good chance of a similarity. /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.