Re: *oy vey*

> Van: Danny Wier
>
> >Nederlands/Dutch is essntiallij a Low Germanic language with
> that funkij <
>
> Or better yet, _vunkij_ since Dutch voices initial fricatives.
Wat een vlauwekul... I mean, flauwekul! Voiced and voiceless initial
fricatives are phonemically distinct, as can be seen by looking at these
minimal pairs in Dutch:

fee (fairy) - vee (cattle)
fel (fierce) - vel (skin)
fries (frieze (on a building)) - vries (freeze)
fors (sturdy) - vors (to reserach (1p sing, arch))
flakker (flicker, 1p sing.) - vlakker (more flat, comp.)
fier (proud) - vier (four)
faal (fail, 1p sing) - vaal (faded, pale)

I voice all of those "v"'s and none of those "f"'s! And I can assure you,
that no Dutch person mistakes a "veestapel" (livestock) for a "feestapel"
(lit. 'a pile of fairies') ;-)

Maarten

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