Re: Nasal semivowels/fricatives?

At 06:55 15/02/00 +0100, you wrote:
>
>Indeed, I also don't understand.
>
>Some phoneticians regularly classify 'ordinary nasals' as stops, with two
>subsets: "nasal stops" [m], [n], [N] etc., and "oral stops" [p], [b], [t],
>[d], [k], [g] etc.
>
>So what is the difference between a nasalized stop & a nasal stop?
>
I know that classification, and I know that some phoneticians classify
nasals as stops. Personnally I don't like this classification, as nasals
certainly don't behave like stops (depending on the languages, they often
behave like fricatives, and even approximants!). Nasals are different from
stops as there is no blockage in the air flow, unlike stops (yes, there is
blockage in the oral cavity, but the nasal cavity is wide open and stays
wide open without discontinuity, just like a fricative or an approximant).

As a nasal is continuous, I don't classify them as stops, but as
continuants like fricatives and approximants with which they have lots in
common (syllabic nasals are just as frequent as syllabic approximants and
laterals, while I'm not even sure syllabic stops are possible). What I call
"nasalized stops" are real stops, that's to say the airstream passes a
little and then is blocked in both the oral and nasal cavities. At least I
can make them and I find them different from both the regular nasals and
the regular stops.
Of course they are not the easiest sounds of Tj'a-ts'a~n, but I'm pretty
sure of my description, and I can hear them (and they are different from
prenasalized stops, as the nasalization stays until the end of the
consonnant).

Well, of course, I may be wrong in my description, but I'm pretty sure I'm
not. And anyway, Tj'a-ts'a~n is supposedly spoken by aliens, so they may be
different enough so that they can produce sounds we can't (but then, I
would like to know what I produce myself, because now I'm worrying about my
own humanity :) ).

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org