Re: Consonantal length

Brian Betty wrote:

>I know, the only emphatics in North Asia are in Korean. Which has a
>nostrilfull, that for sure. Ever try and say a word like:
>
>ttok.ttok-hae.yo^
>
>where the tt (written with 2 separate Ts in Korean, by the by) is strongly
>glottalised, voiced, and given length? Aiya! It makes Mandarin a walk in
>the park IMHO.
It does.  Except Korean doesn't have retroflexes.  The "emphatic" consonants
you speak of are <p'>, <t'>, <s'>, <c'> and <k'> (<c> means /tS/).  From
what I read, they're not exactly glottalized (I'm sure it's pretty
acceptable to pronounce them as such), but more "tensed", whereas <p>, <t>,
<s>, <c> and <k> are "lax".  You also have aspirated stops <ph>, <th>, <ch>
and <kh>.  I'm not sure which are commonly transliterated as doubles (<pp>,
<tt> etc.).

By the way, Korean vowels are:

i  1  u
e  @  o
&  a

(I think Old Korean had a ninth vowel, a rounded <A>.)

Hey, anybody know what the current opinion is on whether or not Korean is an
Altaic language (I have a hunch it is; I doubt Japanese is though)?

Danny


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