linguolabials (was: Re: Hell hath no Fury)
| From: | J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Thursday, June 14, 2001, 3:37 |
|---|
Steg Belsky wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Jun 2001 17:06:00 +0200 Christophe Grandsire
>
> > How frequent are linguolabial sounds? And where are they spoken? I'm
> > curious
> > because they seem so difficult to pronounce to me!!! Your tongue has
> > to go through the teeth barrier!!! :)))
>
> I have no idea how frequent they are, and the only language i know of
> that uses them is i think Pablo Flores used them in a conlang of his a
> while ago.
Linguolabial sounds are extremely rare, but not at all hard to pronounce,
IMO. Just touch the tip of your tongue to your upper lip and release. The
result sounds like a bizarre cross between /p/ and /t/ (which,
articulatorily speaking, it more-or-less is). If you're having trouble
pronouncing linguolabials because of the teeth, then you're probably not
opening your mouth wide enough.
Ladefoged and Maddieson ("The Sounds of the World's Languages", 1996)
report the existence of linguolabials in a small group of languages spoken
in Vanuatu. Languages cited include Tangoa, Vao, and Umotina--none of
which I have heard of. No other languages are known to have these sounds.
Matt.
Reply