Re: Phonology question

At 22:17 12/07/99 -0300, you wrote:
>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 to
>> >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?
>
        I agree with you for Castillan Spanish. It seems that Basque and Castillan
Spanish have the same sound for the letter 's'. Well, in fact, I think that
in Spanish, /s/ and this "whistle" are allophones, whereas they are
distinct phonemes in Basque (written 'z' and 's'). This is a very
distinctive feature and I wonder whether it's not an influence of Basque
over Castillan Spanish (as this sound isn't present in any other Romance
language as far as I know). Am I wrong?


>
>--Pablo Flores
>
>
                                                        Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html