Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: THEORY: questions

From:Wesley Parish <wes.parish@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 11, 2003, 8:25
I've heard |h| in English pronounced as /x/ by non-first-language speakers of
English, usually Greeks and people from the Balkans.

I think in their natlangs they don't have /h/.  So you could have /h/ turning
into /x/ in borrowings and in dialects growing up in communities who were
originally speakers of X (which doesn't have that sound) and are now speakers
of Y (which does have it).

Wesley Parish

On Tuesday 11 March 2003 08:25 am, you wrote:
> Quoting Rachel Klippenstein <estel_telcontar@...>: > > So basically I get: > > People can't think of any natlang where native [h] has > > become any other sound, only ones where it is lost. > > Chinese [h] became [k] in early Japanese borrowings. > > People's conlangs have [h] becoming [x], [k_h] and > > [?h] > > I've heard that some mediaeval Latin texts show "ch"=[k] were "h" would be > expected. No idea as to whether this examplifies a change [h]>[k] or > whether the scribe responsible spoke something that didn't have [h] and, > like the earlier-mentioned Japanese, heard it as [k]. > > [h], at least medially, can certainly change to [h\] and back. They're in > free variation medially for many speakers of languages that allow medial > /h/. > > AFMCL, Classical Klaish had initial and medial [h\]. Tairezazh and Steienzh > jettisoned it everywhere, whereas Telendlest and Searixina devoiced it > initially and kept it medially (with the evil twist that orthographically > it was also devoiced medially). > > Andreas > > Andreas
-- Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?" You ask, "What is the most important thing?" Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata." I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."