Re: Nasal semivowels/fricatives?

--- Paul Bennett <paulnkathy@...> wrote:
> You're right, there was a very long and relatively
> heated thread on
> ejectives and other glottal tomfoolery not so very
> long ago.
>
> I wasn't sure that the sounds I was making were
> really ejectives, hence the
> statement
> > > (or otherwise glottalic)
> in my posting.
>
> Perhaps what I'm producing is more like a
> simultaneous glottal stop and
> (ordinary) nasal, but there's even more to it than
> that,
You cannot produce voice while the glottis is closed,
so you could not produce a glottal stop (closed
glottis) simultaneously with an ordinary (voiced)
nasal.

> as there is a more
> noticable puff of air from my nostrils than when
> producing an ordinary
> nasal.  This extra velocity(?) put me mind of an
> ejective, so that's what I
> assumed it must be.  They're certainly nasal,
> voiced, feel like stops and
> involve throat constriction.
>
> Any guesses, anyone?
Maybe you're producing a pharyngealized nasal followed
by a non-pharyngealized vowel?  That would explain the
throat constriction, the feeling of a stop (the sudden
transition from pharyngealized to non-pharyngealized
would be kind of like releasing a stop) and the voiced
nasal continuant quality.

Or maybe it's a sequence -- an ordinary nasal quickly
followed by a glottal stop, which marks the transition
from nasal to non-nasal voicing?

Whatever it is, it's a damned creative consonant and
you should get some kind of award for it. :)

Ed



=====
===========================================
Ed Heil               uncorrected@yahoo.com
===========================================
Don't believe the cats.  They've been fed.
===========================================
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com