Re: Consonants and sonorant as vowels

on 7/4/02 2:32 AM, Pavel Iosad at pavel_iosad@MAIL.RU wrote:

>> Polish has "jablko" (where l = l-stroke), but it is usually
>> pronounced [japko].
>> Maybe in some cases like [jabuko], I'm not sure about that.
>
> Don't think so. To the best of my knowledge, all Polish Cl/- groups
> before anything but a vowel simplify to C. So "pletl/" [plet], jabl/ko
> [japko], but bl/a,d [bwont].
Occasionally in extremely "careful" (and maybe slightly affected) speech,
the L/ will actually show up in these positions: [jabwkO], stl/uk/
[stwukw_0].

>> It won't count
>> anyway, since l-stroke is rather a semivowel than a
>> consonant; its normal SAMPA
>> transcription would be [w].
>
> Not really. Don't know the SAMPA, but a labiovelar sonorant. And even if
> [w] is a labiovlear sonorant as well, still Polish l/ sounds definitely
> different from [w].
In fact, as a native Polish speaker, I can say with confidence that in most
people's pronunciation, this *is* IPA [w]. There are cases in the speech of
certain areas (Lublin, for example) and actors/news announcers where this
will come through as a velarised lateral, like the Russian /l/ before a back
vowel. But for 95% of Poles it's a [w] straight-up.

 --
Joshua Brandt-Young <vionau@...>
"After the tempest I behold, once more, the weasel."
Mispronunciation of Ancient Greek

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