Re: comments on Itláni

On Saturday 17 November 2001 10:47, Matt wrote:

> --- Irina Rempt <irina@...> wrote:
> > hanie      jat  tylan hyn
> > apprentice this smith FUT
> > "this apprentice will be a smith"
> > "this apprentice is going to be a smith"
>
> Irina, I like those words _tylan_ and _hyn_.  How is
> it that y is pronounced in Ilaini/Valdyan?
[barred-i], the thing that looks like "61" in Russian. It's a high
central unrounded vowel, about halfway between [y] and [i] but
slightly further back ([y] and [i] are both front vowels).

You can also arrive at it by saying [a] and raising it in steps;
first you get an a-flavoured shwa (which Romanians spell a-breve)
and then you get [barred-i] (which Romanians spell i-circumflex or
a-circumflex).

In fast speech, unstressed "y" is often indistinguishable from [I].

   Irina

--
irina@valdyas.org                        http://www.valdyas.org/irina
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