Re: Rhotics (was: Poll: What looks best?)

PB = Paul Bennett
MR = Mark Reed
AJ = Andreas Johansson

I may have overstated the degree of well-definedness,it's not as vague as
all this, either:

PB> I think last time, after the dust had settled, and the blood had been
PB> mopped up, we ended up with something like "rhotic is in the eye of the
PB> conlanger", and/or "when I use the word rhotic, it means exactly what I
PB> want it to mean".

It is almost certainly true that the set of rhotics has a "family
resemblance" - any two rhotics will have some significant commonalities, but
exactly what those commonalities are will vary depending on which two you
pick.  In theory that sort of chain can grow to encompass an
arbitrarily-large set, of course, but in practice there's not all that
variation in what features one must choose to get the rhotics together; one
need merely acknowledge that no single set of features will be found in all
rhotics.

Historically, the class developed due to acoustic similarities, which led to
adoption of the same letter (and variants thereof) for written
representation of the sounds in question, since the adopters thought the
sounds were "close enough" to warrant the choice.  The acoustic similarity
was eventually quantified somewhat when it was found that most rhotics have
a lowered third formant in their spectra.

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>