Re: Voiced [h]? Difference between vowel and consonant?

Hallo!

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 20:04:51 -0400,
Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:

> > [...] So: what is the difference in pronounciation
> > between [V] and [h\]?
>
> It's difficult for English speakers to segment out, even though we often
> produce it in casual speech. Have you checked out the various IPA sites with
> sound samples?? I've found some techniques for producing [h\]:
> 1. as the difference between glottal stop onset to a vowel vs. smooth onset,
> esp. [a]-- [?a] vs. [..a].
Yes.

>      Such a contrast exists in some Polynesian
> languages, and Arabic (the letter is called _ayin_ IIRC).
No, _`ayin_ is a voiced *pharyngeal* fricative (CXS [?\]).
At least in standard Arabic.  It wouldn't surprise me if it had
shifted to [h\] in some dialects, though.  The sounds are similar
enough - but they aren't the same.

Greetings,

Jörg.