Re: Phonology

Marcel writes:

>you wrote:
>
>>The most important sound you'll have to master if you don't want to
>>have "ENGLISH" written all over you language is an alternative to
>>the English retroflex "r" (/r\`/ in X-SAMPA).  The Spanish-style
>>alveolar trill or tap /r/ is the most common, though the French-style
>  >uvular /R/ would be even more un-English.  =)
Géarthnuns offers both, with "r" as the Mom's apple pie trill, and
"rh" as what I've described as a very breathy Parisian "r" (unvoiced,
as in "battre"). I thought maybe Dutch "gr" might come close, but I
don't have a native Dutch speaker around to verify if this is the
sound I'm trying to describe. Suffice it to say that there are two
Géarthnuns "r's" and they are phonemically distinct.

Kou