Re: Phonology Help (Aramaic and Pashto)

On Mon, 18 Nov 2002 12:34:18 +0100 Eamon Graham eskribyo:

<<<For one of my many projects I'm attempting to create a phonology
based on Aramaic and Pashto (why?  Because I think they sound really
nice.)
I've had to piece together the phonological constraints myself
(mostly based on Aramaic and Modern Hebrew and dropping the more
ungodly Pashto consonant clusters).>>>

I no NOTHING about Pashto (including its phonology. What can make such
a problem there?
Clusters? Specific consonants? Try any Caucasian lang and all the
others would seem toys.
BTW, where can we get any kind of info about Pashto in the Web? I'm
interested in the way
they adapted Arabic script to their IE lang.

<<<[skip] The main issue are the Aramaic emphatic consonants.  I'll be
honest:
I'm not quite sure what they are or how they would fit in to such a
scheme.>>>

If you mean /s`/ [tzadi] and /t`/ [teit], they are just pairs to
ordinary /s/ and /t/.
Arabic has also /d`/ and /z`/ or /D`/. It's ok to incorporate them.
-------

and Steg commented:

<<<I don't know about Modern Aramaic (=Syraic?), but supposedly common
Semitic emphatics were originally glottalized.  Modern Arabic uses
pharyngealization or velarization, instead.>>>

At the Uni we were told the same. BTW, some people say they cannot
hear the difference.
I can. After Prof. K.M.Tischenko's lectures I was not the only one (of
those who survived, certainly)...

<<<According to the
"Pronunciations of Hebrew" article in the Encyclopedia Judaica,
Aramaic-speaking Jews pronounce Hebrew's emphatics as velarized, so
i'd
assume that's how Aramaic emphatics are pronounced too.>>>

Agree.

Yitzik
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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