Re: Icelandic language (was Re: World Pidgin Suffices)

>From: BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: Icelandic language (was Re: World Pidgin Suffices)
>Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 13:47:59 +0200
>
>At 18:59 20.6.2000 +0000, Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:
>>However...
>>I refuse to go out of my way to write edh; the thing is, [D] is not a
>>phoneme in Icelandic, but merely an allophone of /d/.
>
>Rather a case of neutralized opposition between /T/ and /d/, IMHO.  The
>Interesting thing is that there *is* a /v/ phoneme, but all of /v/f/b/ get
>neutralized to [v] under like conditions as /T/d/ are neutralized to
>[D].  The [Q] sound in words like da[g]ur is also a neutralization of /h/g/
>-- /h/ also has a [x] allophone in some peoples pronunciation of "hv".
Yeah, I should've thought of it... Verner's Law has [T] > [D].  So what do
you call it when two phonemes, such as /T/ and /d/ in Icelandic, share an
allophone, [D]?  That happens in Irish Gaelic, where 'b' and 'm' become [w]
(broad) or [vj] (slender) after lenition (they're written 'bh' and 'mh' in
that case).  It also happens with /d/ and /g/, which merge into [gamma]
(broad) or [j] (slender) even though they are written 'dh' and 'gh'.  You
also have nasalization (eclipsis), where initials 'p' > 'bp' [b], 't' > 'dt'
[d], 'c' > 'gc' [g], 'f' > 'bhf' = 'mh' and 'bh' (see above for phonetic
value).  Also 's' > 'sh' and 't' > 'th' = [h] in both cases, and 'f' > 'fh'
= zero.

(Oh how I love those mutating consonants!!)

Daniel A. Wier  ¶¦¬þ
Lufkin, Texas USA
http://communities.msn.com/DannysDoubleWideontheWeb
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com