the lonely affricate
From: | Joshua Shinavier <ajshinav@...> |
Date: | Thursday, June 24, 1999, 15:52 |
A question: does anyone know of any language which has a "j" sound -- [dZ] =
--
but no "ch" -- [tS]? One of the peculiarities (there aren't many) of Arov=
=EBn's
phonetics is that it has just one affricate, although it's otherwise pretty=
well
rounded-out as far as consonants go:
m [m] b [b] p [p] (v [v] f [f]) w [w]
n [n] d [d] t [t] z [z] s [s] l [l]
. . . j [dZ] c [S] r [r]
=F1 [N] g [g] k [k] h [h,C] * y [j]
* g can sometimes be pronounced [G], especially if it has mutated from an h=
.
h is pronounced [h] except when it comes after a "full" vowel, especially
if it is then followed by a "flat" vowel ([E], [I], [A.], [U] are flat,
the other six are full; the distinction is important for stress and for
word construction). The initial cluster hy- is always pronounced [Cj].
c is a retroflex [S] (is there a special symbol for this?)
the "j"-"sh" situation seems to make sense to me, but I don't know of a sin=
gle
natural language which is like this. Perhaps the retroflex c is what keeps
plain [Z] (as a distinct phoneme) or [tS] from creeping into the language -=
-
a retroflex [Z] seems unlikely (though I'm sure there are languages which h=
ave
it), as does retroflex [tS]. The language also has a ty- [tj], and the -ts=
-
combination often occurs near the ends of words, e.g. <lak> --> <laksen>, w=
hich
might help exclude [tS]...
Josh
_/_/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/ Joshua Shinavier =20
_/ _/ _/ Loorenstrasse 74, Zimmer B321=20
_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ CH-8053 Z=FCrich =20
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Switzerland =20
_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ jshinavi@g26.ethz.ch
Danov=EBn pages: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/5555/ven.htm