Re: Lingwa de Planeta (LdP) introductory course

On 5.8.2007 lingwadeplaneta wrote:
 > Aha, so we can speak Russian! Nice.

Nemnogo.

 > You know, I myself have noticed this z' component only
 > recently. It is quite difficult for me to pronounce a
 > palatalized d without it; this may be done, but then it
 > sounds very unnatural.

I notice it all the time in native Russians, but they don't
seem to notice it themselves!

 > I am not a phonetician (we have one in our team, though),
 > but it seems to me that this happens because of the tounge
 > position when you pronounce d' - it is very close to the
 > one when you pronounce z'.

There is a general tendency for palatalization to develop
into friction. That's why you get the sound change series

:                  > tS_j > tS > S
:    k_j > c > ts\ > s\ > S
:                  > ts_j > ts > s
:                              > T

As you may know all three of these have occurred in Slavic
languages at different times and places. In the history of
French and Portuguese, and Tibetan!, [p_j] and [b_j] even
developed into [tS] and [dZ], and [m_j] into [ndZ].

Perhaps the palatalization causes a delayed release of the
stop closure. Else all stops, not only palatalized ones,
would become affricates.

/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Maybe" is a strange word.  When mum or dad says it
it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it
means "no"!

                        (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7)