Re: More Ere:tas: The fable of the North Wind and the Sun

Christian Thalmann wrote:
>Keith Gaughan wrote:
>
> > a /9/  = 'a' in sad
>
>'A' in sad would be /{/ in X-SAMPA, which I find an exceptionally ugly
>character.  Some people (including me) swap that symbol with /&/, which
>X-SAMPA uses for the much less common rounded /a/ sound.
>
>So your a would be either /{/ or /&/.
>
>
> > o /u:/ = 'o' in do
> > ö /o:/ = 'o' in cold
>
>I would swap those two.  /& @ o/ are somewhat laxer vowels which /e: i:
>u:/ are tenser ones.
>
>As for the missing /a/ sound:  I agree with Christophe that its lack is
>indeed very puzzling.  It seems to be the most basic sound a human can
>produce (besides /@/), the first one a child can articulate (think
>"mama") and the most natural one to shout, seeing as it's used in
>involunatry utterings such as screams of pain or shock.
>
>Then again, the world's languages realize their /a/s very differingly.
>English has [A], Italian [a], and Swiss German both [A] and a very open
>[a], while Arabic /a/ sounds nearly like [&] afaik.
>
>So in Keith's lang, [&] would be the realization of the obligate /a/
>phoneme.
Speaking of 'a's, is there any (real-world) language that have a phonemic
contrast between [A] and [a]? To  my ears, they sound very different (much
more so than for instance [o] and [O]).

                                                Andreas

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