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Re: Representing Boreanesian (was: Re: quantity triggered vs.

From:Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...>
Date:Friday, December 11, 1998, 20:17
BP Jonsson skrev:


>Since you are a Danish speaker I have to ask you this: would you >consider the _st/od_ to be "the same thing" as the initial >glottal stop?
Simple answer: No. Detailed answer: The glottal stop/constriction in the _st/od_ is superimposed on syllable final consonants, not in the beginning of syllables. I say superimposed because it is not always a glottal stop by itself. Rather, it is a very constricted laryngeal setting of syllable final consonants. The syllable bearing the _st/od_ starts out with normal modal voicing then very rapidly changes to creaky voicing only to end in a glottal stop. Call it "a 'glide' of the laryngeal setting" if you will. I guess that's why the best English translation of _st/od_ would be _glottal catch_. Incidentally, this glottal catch is exactly how Boreanesians (my conlang speakers) would pronounce Boreanesian words with the creaky tone/register.
>Here in Sweden orthoepists and their ilk condemn >the initial glottal stop as a fault, although it is quite natural >to most speakers; after all ther is no elision in most Swedish >varieties. I've even heard a professional phonetician argue that >the weak glottal stop in Swedish would be some kind of harmful >disorder while the strong Arabic variety is just another >consonant! Clearly this is the old Swedish prejudice against >Danish pronunciation <sigh>.
Danish pronciation <sigh indeed>, you can love it and hate it at the same time. Its incredibly difficult for foreigners to master it. Many would agree that Danish is a horrible sounding language - Danes included. But many of the sounds are special, especially the _st/od_ and the lamino-alveolar approximant (Danish _d_). Its difficult to avoid having tremendous fun when foreigners try to imitate Danish sounds. Have you ever been forced by a Dane to try to say the infamous "R/od gr/od med fl/od."?
>In German, OTOH, the glottal stop is gladly admitted as a phoneme >and part of the standard. Not only do most German speakers say >[?aox di: ?andAn], they even say [feA?aen] for _Verein_; [feraen] >and especially [feRaen] immediately give the stranger away!
Strangers are almost always given away in Denmark. 8-) About the glottal stop, I'm almost positive that the glottal stop is admitted as a phoneme in syllable initial position. I have seen phonetic transcriptions of Danish in dictionaries use /?/ to mark words with the _st/od_. E.g.: _hund_ /hun?/ "dog" vs. _hun_ /hun/ "she", _ved_ /veD?/ "know" vs. _ved_ /veD/ "by, beside". But I have never seen the /?/ used in the beginning of words in these transcriptions - I'm sure its assumed. Regards, -Kristian- 8-)