Re: Phonology question

John Fisher <john@...> wrote:
>=20
> In message <Pine.GSO.4.10.9907121648010.13555-100000@...>,
> Patrick Dunn <tb0pwd1@...> writes
> >Okay, a sound has popped up in my new language and I don't know what t=
o
> >call it.
> >
> >I'd call it an alveolar fricative, but I already have /s/.
> >
> >It's like a /t/, except the tongue is relaxed, arched slightly so the =
very
> >tip touches the alveolar ridge.  Sounds a bit like a whistle, and it
> >occurs at the end of words in my new language.
>=20
> Sounds like a "flat" [s], as against an ordinary [s] which is grooved,
> so that the air only escapes in the middle.  Another way to look at it
> is as an alveolar version of [T] (theta), because that is usually not
> grooved.
>=20
I've encountered this same sound already. In one of the dialects of
Drasel=E9q, the alveolar trill <rr> changed into a voiced version of=20
*that*, but I didn't know what to call it. A flat [s], an ungrooved [s]?

I think Castilian Spanish has this sound for /s/ in almost all positions,
or a very similar one. It's a very distinctive feature. I think Padraic
Brown once called it "madrile=F1o hiss", am I right?


--Pablo Flores