Re: aspirated m?

Ray Brown scripsit:

> >I only really know for sure in Quenya and Sindarin.  However,
> >there are tenwa that could concievably be used for the purpose.
>
> Yes, yes - in any schematic system like tenwa there is likely to the
> possibility of signs for sounds that do not occur or even could not occur
> because they are physically impossible.
In Appendix E of the L.R., JRRT writes:

# According to the principle observed above, Grade 6 [of the tengwar]
# should then have represented the voiceless nasals; but since such sounds
# (exemplified by Welsh _nh_ or ancient English _hn_) were of very rare
# occurrence in the languages concerned, Grade 6 (21-24) was most often
# used for the weakest or 'semi-vocalic' consonants of each series.

Now JRRT certainly knew his Welsh, so I would conclude that he is using
the term "voiceless nasal" loosely.  But "very rare occurrence" surely
cannot mean "no occurrence at all", so I think we can also conclude
that aspirated and/or voiceless nasals *do* occur in the Tolklangs,
though perhaps not phonemically.  Certainly the Eldar seemed to have
thought of hr- hl- as biphonemic, and probably hm- hn- hN- would have
been treated likewise.

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