3. The principle of minimal ambiguity: Word space can show that two words
are pronounced with diferent stress patterns e.g., blackbird and black bird are distinguished orally by diferent stress patterns. Ignoring these diferences can
lead to ambiguities in the written text which are absent in speech. If both blackbird and black bird were written with a space between the two component words, the
diference in the two meanings would be lost.
Example: In Tharaka, the proclitic wa
‘each’ has an entirely diferent function and stress pattern from the
wa written separately, meaning possession, so the
writing system relects the distinction.
4. When a morpheme demonstrates mobility, it is usually written as a separate
word, even if it doesn’t make sense in isolation. In Swahili, Wageni wenu
wataika lini? Or
Lini wageni wenu wataika? are both correct Translation:
When will your guests arrive?. Since the adverb lini
clearly is not obliged to follow the verb and its aixes in this example
wataika , but is movable it is isolatable
as well, it should be written as a separate word from the verb, for readability considerations.
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5. The principle of separability: A functor is written separately from the word with
which it usually occurs when other words can intervene between them. In Bantu languages the subject preix, negative marker, and tense and aspect markers tend
to be bound aixes; because these markers are so closely linked to the verb stem there is no possibility of inserting any other words between them and the verb
stem.
Example: The associative marker, usually consisting of a preix plus –a, e.g., the
ya in Swahili
nyumba ya mdogo wangu , ‘the house of my younger relative’,
should be written either as a clitic or as a completely separate word from the following noun. Other words may intervene between the associative and the noun,
as in this example: nyumba ya huyu mdogo wangu
‘the house of this younger relative of mine’. The associative should not be attached to a noun as a preix,
because it is a separate word. Since it is monosyllabic, however, people may prefer to treat it as a clitic. See following section on clitics.
However, in some verb forms, the preixes may be bound to an auxiliary, while the main verb stem constitutes a separate unit. If it is possible to insert other
words between the associative marker and the verb stem, it is quite possible that there is a verbal auxiliary, and thus there is a word break in the verb. In this case,
people will respond favorably to writing the verb stem as a separate unit. The subject marker will probably be perceived as a preix on the word which precedes
the main verb stem within the verb phrase. Phonological clues such as vowel harmony, vowel length, stress, and tone may help guide the word break decision.
If not, test speakers with a variety of treatments of word breaks in such verbs.
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Based upon its mobility, a poor word break choice for Swahili’s interrogative particle je is shown here. It can occur in two locations in a sentence: Je, wamefanya nini? ‘What? What have you been doing?’ and
wamefanyaje?’You have been doing what?’ It should be written disjunctively in both instances, though the stress patterns of speech have supported its conjunctive spelling.
Tone can also make a diference in grammatical meaning, and of course that written distinction must be attached to the part of speech it modiies.
6. The principle of substitutability is often a criterion for writing certain
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