Re: Request for help, Spanish

Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:

> > In my dialect both are pronounced [j\], a fricative version of [j].  I know
> > is not a [j] (because _hierba_ is contrasted whit _yerba_)
>
> Then the {h} in words like "hierba" actually as a use!?  So there is a
> phonemic contrast between /j/ and /j\], then?
The {h} is there because initial {ie} and {ue} are forbidden
orthographically (I think we discussed this before; {ue} was
written as {ve}, so to avoid ambiguity it was changed to {hve}).
It's there no matter what the actual sound was; I guess _hierba_
had an {h} in Latin, but _hueso_ did not.

In Rioplatense, we say [ierba] and [Serba] (I think it's more an [i]
than a [j], though still clearly a diphthong).


--Pablo Flores
  http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/