Re: Sonority of 'h'?

At 22:14 30.6.2003 +0200, Andreas Johansson wrote:

>Quoting BP Jonsson <bpj@...>:
>
> > At 16:59 26.6.2003 +0200, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> >
> > >[h] is a voiceless glottal fricative, i.e. the fricative equivalent of
> > [?],
> > >just like [x] is the fricative equivalent of [k]. It even has a
> > voiced
> > >counterpart, hooked-h in IPA, [h\] in X-SAMPA.
> >
> > NB [h\] doesn't have modal voicing (which would be impossible] but
> > breathy
> > voicing.  Indeed [h\] **is** essentially breathy voicing.
>
>What _is_ modal and breathy voicing, articulatorily?
>
>                                                         Andreas
This is a bit old.  I've been very busy in Real Life lately.

"Modal voicing" is a fancier term for "ordinary voicing".

According to the second edition of Peter Ladefoged's
_A course in phonetics_:

"In a voiced sound the vocal chords are close together and
vibrating... [omit description of voiceless articulation
with vocal chords apart BPJ] But if there is considerable
airflow, as in an _h_-like sound, the vocal chords will be
set vibrating while remaining apart.  In this way they produce
what is called *breathy voice* or *murmur* ... in an inter-
vocalic [h] as in "ahead" ... they will produce breathy voice,
vibrating loosely, so they appear to be simply flapping in
the airstream. ... another kind of breathy voice.  In this
sound the vocal chords are apart at one end.  They can still
vibrate, but at the same time a great deal of air passes out
through the glottis."

Try going from pronouncing [h\] to a breathy [n_h\] -- it is
quite easy -- and from there to breathy [nd_h\a:] and finally
to [d_h\a:].



/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
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