Re: Arabic

On Thu, 22 Nov 2001, Eric Christopherson wrote:

> > That's it.  I remember it being discussed here not that long ago, it's
> > the sound he makes with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out, right?
> >  As opposed to the "mmmm... forbidden donut..." nasal sound.  That
> > pharyngeal sound is actually a `ayn voiced pharyngeal
> > fricative/approximant sound.  So if you hold the back of your tongue in
> > that position while articulating whatever else, you'd come out with a
> > pharyngealized sound.  Of course, the _Teach Yourself Arabic_ book i
> > tried to use 4 years ago said that `ayn is made with the same muscles you
> > regurgitate with, so "if you feel like you're throwing up, you've got it
> > correct"  ;-)
>
> Hmm. Well, if that's true, then the force you use to tense them while
> pronouncing pharyngeals must not be as strong, because when I make the
> abovementioned Homer sound (yes, that's the one I meant), it doesn't feel
> like I'm going to throw up.
If I breathe out at the same time as making the sound, it _definately_
feels like I want to throw up. I wouldn't want to speak a language with
that sound, though, irregardless of which way I was breathing at the time ;)


Tristan

anstouh@yahoo.com.au

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