Re: Ng'and'ana

En réponse à Elliott Belser <renyard@...>:

>
> Right then.  I do not know how to classify letter sounds, so help me
> with that... I'll use the 'like the (letter) in (word)' form.  The
> basic vowels are:
>
For sound classification, the best is to first learn IPA (use for instance the
freeware program IPAHelp: http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/ipahelp.html)
and then a IPA-ASCII transcription (go to http://www.cs.brown.edu/~dpb/ascii-
ipa.html for a list of the IPA characters and their different transliterations
in different systems, and to http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/x-sampa.htm
for the X-SAMPA extension of the SAMPA system, the one most widely used -
though often with minor changes - on this list). Since the "like the (letter)
in (word)" is an explanation that often depends on dialect (especially with
vowels since different dialects of English have a remarkable variety of
rendering vowels), it's better to stick to IPA. At least, everyone is sure of
what sounds you mean.

>
> The consonants, like in Hebrew, can sometimes be modified by a dot.
> In this language this dot is called an 'Adam,' or 'crystallizer'
> (Hard: Adam'u  To harden: Adam'as  Crystals: Adam) and they make
> sounds guttural (the only sound word I know).
Unfortunately the sound meaning of "guttural" doesn't refer at all to the
mechanisms (there are more than one) you describe below. "Guttural" indicates
that some articulation in the throat is present. Sounds of this kind are the
glottal stop and the aspirated h, the ejectives (which sound a little like a
stop pronounced at the same time as a glottal stop) and the aspirated stops
(the difference between an aspirated stop and a non-aspirated stop is the same
as the difference between the 'p' in 'pin' and the 'p' in 'spin'), and the
pharyngeal and epiglottal consonnants found in some languages like Arabic.

>
> V       >       B
Since b is pronounced even more advanced than v (v uses both upper lip and
lower teeth, while b uses both lips), you can hardly call that
gutturalisation :)) . I'd call that strengthening.

> K       >       Q  (Like the 'Ch' in Chanuka)
Fricativisation.

> D       >       T
Devoicing.

> F       >       P
Strengthening again :)) .

> G       >       NG  (Like the Ng in Ring, but is it's own letter.)
Nasalisation.

> H  (Must be used at the end of a word that would have a vowel end.)
> L
> M       >       N
Strange one. Is it a regular sound change? Or just two different sounds that
happen to be written by two variations of the same sign? I can't see any
mechanism (except maybe assimilation, but then you have to have other
consonnants around, and normally it's n which assimilates, not m) that would
allow this transformation.

> R       >       RH (Rolled R - the infamous 'kitty purr' as Terran
> linguists have it.)
Is this sound made with the tip of the tongue behind the teeth (in which case
it's an apical trill) or is it pronounced in the back of the mouth near the
throat? (in which case it's a uvular trill, the so-called "Parisian r" - listen
to Edith Piaf, she is a perfect example for this sound :) -)
Well, it could be a case of "strengthening" (you could call that "broadening",
to copy Irish :)) .

> S       >       Z (Sometimes pronounced J)
>
Voicing, or voicing with palatalisation and affrication (for S > J).

>
> Grammar is next...
>
I'm impatient :))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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