Re: OT: Phonetics (IPA)

Quoting Nikhil Sinha <nsinha_in@...>:

> Andreas Johansson likis:
>
> > Quoting Joe <joe@...>:
> >
> > > AFAIK, this is a pretty common confusion in languages with retroflexes.
> > > However, I, as a native English speaker, would place dentals and
> alveolars
> > > together, and retroflexes seperately, whereas evidently you would place
> > > retroflexes and alveolars together, and dentals seperately.
> >
> > I might point out that for me, whose native language distinguishes dentals
> and
> > retroflexes (regardless of whether we phonemize [t`] as /rt/ - it still
> > contrasts with [t_d] /t/), alveolars sounds like dentals, not retroflexes.
> >
> >                                                        Andreas
>
> Question for Andreas: What is your native language? I would still say that
> if
> you consider the manner in which alveolars, dentals and retroflexes are
> pronounced, dentals are no doubt closer to alveolars.
>
> But, if you consider the sounds that they produce, definitely, alveolars
> sound closer to retroflexes than dentals.
>
> The difference in opinion may be due to the fact that even if two languages
> have alveolar t and d, both language may pronounce it differently.
My native language is Swedish.

I'm no phonetician, and cannot say whether alveolars are acoustically closer
to retroflexes or dentals, but I am unable to consistently tell dentals and
alveolars (alveolars as heard in the varieties of English I've heard) apart,
whereas retroflexes sound quite different to me.

                                                     Andreas

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