Re: What _is_ rhoticity? (wa laterals (was: Pharingials etc))

>Try as I might, I can't hear anything r-like about the 'w' in "awáa". Not
that
>I feel any very great confidence that your "rhotic" is coterminus with my
idea
>of "r-like".
If one compares several different sounds that are definitely
r-like beyond doubt (Spanish tap and trill, English r, German
r, Italian r, Arabic r, Russian r, English rhotic vowels...),
it's not that difficult to extrapolate the common 'feeling'
in those sounds which makes them similar, and I don't think
that 'feeling' of rhoticity is extrapolated differently by
different people if everybody agrees that those sounds have
something in common which do not have in common with sounds
classified as non-rhotics. The sensation of "pulsiness" and
"trembling sound" I get when hearing that recording of "awáa"
is not just similar to or reminiscent of, it is the exact
same one I hear in any of those beyond-doubt rhotics and
one I never get when hearing beyond-doubt non-rhotic sounds
like [d], [t], [l], [w], etc.


>There is, however, definitively some sort of velar or near-velar closure
>involed. The word sounds like [a'gwa:] to me.
It sounds exactly as if you merged w with French r to me.


>The 'w's in "wul" and "gawiit" sound completely normal, so to speak. No
hint
>of a stop.
>
>Your other link didn't work.
Try doing a Google search for "UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive".
Then go to "Index of sounds" > "Rhotics" > "Rhotics in Edo".

But given that you cannot detect the r-likeness in the
"awáa" recording, which almost made me jump from my chair
the first time I heard it, thinking they were pronouncing
a weird kind of French r instead of a w, then now I no
longer wonder why you make such a fuss trying to figure
out what on earth rhoticity is. Unfortunately, as I said,
if as you say you actually cannot detect the r-colouring
and "pulsiness" in the w of that recording but only
detect a non-rhotic g-colouring, then there's nothing
I can do to help you realize of it.

Cheers,
Javier

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