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Re: Phonology question

From:BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Tuesday, July 13, 1999, 16:14
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)