Re: Phonetic question...

En réponse à Roger Mills <romilly@...>:

>
> And I agree with your analyses, and agree that the difference is
> indeed
> thin.....but..... how about Span. _unión_ vs. _uña_, or for that
> matter
> French
> _union_ vs. _oignon_????  Just speculating; I suppose instrumental
> analysis
> could answer the question.
>
I've been repeating and repeating "oignon" and "union" until my head began to
spin :)), and I'm still not sure whether I'm imagining the difference I hear or
not (a place where the conjunction paa of Itakian would fit perfectly: it
indicates distrust of your own senses :)) ). I am under the impression that the
nasal sound in "union" starts more in front of the mouth than the nasal sound
of "oignon" (which would be the principal difference between a palatalised
alveolar nasal and a palatal nasal), but I'm afraid that my linguistic
knowledge makes me think that (I know too much in this case :)) . And I don't
have another French speaker handy to ask him/her :)) ).

I think a normal French speaker would say that both words have the same nasal
sound. There may be a little difference due to the fact that "union" is complex
(the radical "un-" plus ending "-ion") while "oignon" is a single radical, but
I don't think anyone would hear it or even pronounce it consistently...

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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