Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

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

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Friday, February 13, 2004, 18:27
Quoting Javier BF <uaxuctum@...>:

> Another recording that clarifies rhoticity can be > found here: > > http://www.haidalanguage.org/sounds-of-haida.html > > Listen to the recording of "awáa" and compare it with > the recording of "wul" or with any English "w" at that. > Can you hear the difference? The pronunciation of "awaa" > in that recording displays a very evident rhotic "w" > [w`] (the preglottalized "'w" recorded in "'wáadaa náay" > sounds rhotic too), while no rhoticity appears in the > recording of "wul" (nor in any English "w" I've ever > heard). Given that AFAIK the w's in "awáa" and "wul" > represent the same phoneme, I assume that both rhotic > and non-rhotic w's are usual allophones of Haida /w/.
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". There is, however, definitively some sort of velar or near-velar closure involed. The word sounds like [a'gwa:] 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. Andreas

Reply

Roger Mills <romilly@...>