Re: tlhn'ks't, ngghlyam'ft, and other scary words

On Wed, 5 Feb 2003 06:56:21 -0600 Danny Wier <dawier@...> writes:
> Outside of Germanic, some languages to note:
> Hindi: i I e ae (rI) @ a u U o O (10 or 11)
> Hungarian: i e (E) ae y o/ a u o Q (10 or 11)
> Hebrew: i I e E @ a u U o O A (11)
-

(Biblical, like your list) Hebrew also has the ultrashort 'hhatafim',
ultrashort [E] [a] and [O].  There may also have been some kind of
distinction between phonemic 'hholam-hhaseir', [o]? < Semitic /u/ and
'hholam-malei', [o:]? < Semitic /aw/ and /a:/.

> Vietnamese: i e E ae a M G V u o O (11) *what's SAMPA for "baby
> gamma"?
> Korean: i e ae y o/ 1 @ a u o (10)
> Hindi and Hebrew are different in that they don't have an
> "Umlaut"-type system of fronting and backing.
-

According to an analysis of Biblical Hebrew phonology i read by Gary
Rendsburg, (if i understood it and remember it correctly) all the huge
number of Hebrew vowels are pretty much just allophonic variations of the
basic 6 Semitic vowels /a i u a: i: u:/.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "i see wry beauty in guile
  represent, like, our vapid mind
  and lapse only on clever nefarious woman"
     ~ magnet poetry next door

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