Re: Phonology question

At 23:28 +0100 12.7.1999, John Fisher wrote:
>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.
>
>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.
In Icelandic the counterparts of English /T/ and /s/ are distinguished as
laminal alveolar and apical alveolar respectively.

The funny thing is that I actually use different /T/ sounds when speaking
English and Icelandic (the one I use in English is almost interdental, and
often has something affricate about it!), although nobody instructed me
about any difference; I discovered it myself and *then* read about it after
the fact.  It seems I only reproduced what I heard Icelanders use very
accurately.  OTOH I never bother to actually use alveolar stops when
speaking English.  They come out as the "postdental" -- i.e. intermediate
between dental and alveolar native to me.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  B.Philip Jonsson  <bpj@...> <melroch@...>

        Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
                                            (Tacitus)