Re: /nj/ vs. /J/ [was Re: sounds I can't find!!!]
| From: | Isaac A. Penzev <isaacp@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, August 16, 2004, 9:13 |
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Tristan Mc Leay jazdï:
> Russian, OTOH, probably has a phonemic contrast
> here... at least, the impression I get is that they
> overdo the palatal/palatised contrasts... :)
Russian has no /J/ phoneme. The only true palatal phoneme in Ru. is /j/.
OTOH, it has /n;/ (/n_j/, if you like). And it is indeed contrasted to both
non-palatalized /n/ and two-phoneme cluster /n;j/, as in:
/kanak/ [kV"nak] 'New Caledonian' :: /kon;ag/ [kV"n;ak] 'old female horse
(G.pl.)' :: /kon;jak/ [kV"n;jak] 'cognac', 'brandy'.
-- Yitzik
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