Re: Arabic Questions

On Sep 26, 2004, at 12:54 PM, Isaac A. Penzev wrote:
> It occurs to me that in a language
>> with contrastive initial /?/::/0/, it might be the onset of
>> /0/-initial
>> words??  Since IIRC you're familiar with both Arabic and Hawaiian, am
>> I
> more
>> or less right?
> In Arabic (as most other Semitic lgs, e.g. Biblical Hebrew) V-initial
> syllables are impossible, so there is no /?/::/0/ contrast.
> In Hawaiian (as well as in her sister lgs), there is such opposition,
> tho i
> don't recall minimal pairs from head now. I find this feature
> especially
> difficult, because smth makes me to pronounce all words in a certain lg
> either with the glottal stop, or without it - just compare English and
> German.
I thought Arabic does have vowel-initial words, hence the opposition
between alif-hamza and plain alif.


-Stephen (Steg)
  "rest / rest and listen / rest and listen and learn, creideiki /
   for the startide rises in the currents of the dark /
   and we have waited long for what must be..."
      ~ _startide rising_ by david brin

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