Headline text
Hiroyuki Fujisaka (藤坂 弘幸) and his Palauan workers are the only people ever to have seen actual Proto-Austronesian Hebrew (PAH) writing. Since he died in 1944, only his notes remain of this language (オーストロネシアヘブライ祖語), extensive though they may be. Most linguistic documentation since that time has been using the Latin alphabet, but the special adaptation of katakana is preserved here for historical and documentary purposes.
|
|
a |
i |
u |
e |
o
|
| ∅
|
ア |
イ |
ウ |
エ |
オ
|
| K
|
カ |
キ |
ク |
ケ |
コ
|
| S
|
サ |
シ |
ス |
セ |
ソ
|
| T
|
タ |
チ |
ツ |
テ |
ト
|
| N
|
ナ |
ニ |
ヌ |
ネ |
ノ
|
| H
|
ハ |
ヒ |
フ |
ヘ |
ホ
|
| M
|
マ |
ミ |
ム |
メ |
モ
|
| Y
|
ヤ |
乙 |
ユ |
丫 |
ヨ
|
| R
|
ラ |
リ |
ル |
レ |
ロ
|
| W
|
ワ |
ヰ |
ヰ |
ヱ |
ヲ
|
| G
|
ガ |
ギ |
グ |
ゲ |
ゴ
|
| Z
|
ザ |
ジ |
ズ |
ゼ |
ゾ
|
| D
|
ダ |
ヂ |
ヅ |
デ |
ド
|
| B
|
バ |
ビ |
ブ |
ベ |
ボ
|
| P
|
パ |
ピ |
プ |
ペ |
ポ
|
| Ŋ
|
カ゚ |
キ゜ |
ク゚ |
ケ゜ |
コ゜
|
| TS
|
サ゜ |
シ゜ |
ス゜ |
セ゜ |
ソ゜
|
The table to the right shows all the syllabograms Fujisaka-san assigned to PAH sounds. He explained that his system should taken as more consistent and uniform than modern Japanese (e.g., シ is /tu/ not /tsu/, フ is /hu/ not /fu/, etc.) The “plain” vowels begin with glottal-stops (instead of no onset), because PAH syllables must begin with a consonant. Fujisaka-san seems to have correctly recalled the obsolete /wi wu we/ katakana characters, but not /yi ye/. Given the obscurity of the true characters, and the ubiquity of the kanji Fujisaka substituted, we have opted to continue his system.
| Gemination
|
ッ
|
| Long vowel
|
ー
|
| Reduplication
|
ヽ
|
| Coda /ŋ/
|
ン
|
| Coda /m/
|
ㇺ
|
| Coda /n/
|
ㇴ
|
| Coda /s/
|
ㇲ
|
| Coda /h/
|
ㇷ
|
| Diphthong-ending /i/
|
ィ
|
| Diphthong-ending /u/
|
ゥ
|
| Diphthong-ending /e/
|
ェ
|
| Diphthong-ending /o/
|
ォ
|
