Re: Tracheal consoants: more

> in Amis (http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/amisf.pdf)
Thanks for the reference.

> And I don't think people who use such sounds
> have a different throat or epiglottis. They
> just developed ease with these articulations
> when young (between 3 and 5 AFAIK); this is
> why I can't utter proper Arabic, while my Arab
> friends just play about with the whole bunch
> of pharyngeals and glottals their language uses.
> Had I learned Arabic vhen a child, I would have
> no such difficulty whatsoever.
When I began studying linguistics, it was assumed that "normal"
children are born wit the ability to make any of the sounds found in
any human language - a tabla rasa, if you will. While learning to
hear & speak his/her L1, certain neural paths are enforced while
others are neglected (not necessarily permanently), so some sounds
are "lost" to that person.

> Now, if these sounds seem unbeautiful or unpleasant to you
Hmm, Though I have prejudices for certain sounds in my conlangs, I
perceive any sounds as pleasant/unpleasant, etc.