Re: Fricative vowels

Pablo Flores wrote:

> I got this from a non-affiliated conlanger friend of mine:
=20
> > In Sweden, they were first noticed in the place called Viby=20
> > (which I have no idea whatsoever of where is).=20
> > Vibrant/approximant vowels, if I got it correctly [...]
> > In other words, they were pronounced, I think, like with=20
> > an r-ish, or z-ish sound to them; perhaps simultaneously=20
> > pronounced with r or z, or perhaps just pronounced with=20
> > a vibrating tongue.
> I told him there are also such vowels in Mandarin, IIRC. Can
> anybody confirm or correct this? And what about the Sweden vowels?
> I think this feature is exclusive of Viby (wherever it is); do you
> know of any other places?
He might be thinking of Viby-i and Viby-y.
Viby /vi:bY/ is situated in N=E4rke (somewhere in the
central part of Sweden), but the Viby-i is
used in several other parts of Sweden, but with slighly
different pronunciations.

Let me quote Sven Bj=F6rsten: (from the website
http://www.ling.su.se/staff/svenb/Viby_i_eng.html)

"Several local dialects from widely scattered areas of Sweden=20
show i- and y-sounds pronounced with a characteristic 'buzzing'=20
or 'damped' quality."

...and further down:

"3) Viby-i,y will be considered in a global, cross-language=20
typological perspective. The vowel inventories of several=20
languages contain sounds that show similarities to Viby-i,y,=20
for instance the fricative vowels of Mandarin, and above all=20
the high, central vowels found in a wide array of languages.=20
Hopefully, the situation in Sweden will shed light on general=20
problems concerning the classification and development of=20
these sounds, and vice versa."

He is working together with the SweDia2000 project
at Stockholm University (http://www.swedia.nu).=20
(SweDia =3D Swedish Dialects)

The SweDia-people (of which I know a couple and may ask
if anyone is interested) has done extensive research on
formants, etc. of the Viby-i and here is a short summary=20
(translated into English by me):

"Data from vowel formants and simulations made with a quantitative
speech production model, indicates that the vowel has a centralized
articulation, either without or with a more or less marked apical=20
element. This points towards Viby-i being incorporated into the=20
overarching category 'high unrounded central vowel',=20
i.e. IPA /=F6/ [my comments: 'ö', though at another page
they write 'i-bar', which I think is more correct.]"

"Between the front and back raising of the tongue, it lowers somewhat
and thus below the high-arching palate ceiling there is created a
closed room of resonance, which gives the sounds a 'thick', 'dark'
and 'buzzing' tone."

There is a lot more. The address is:

http://www.ling.su.se/staff/olle/ICPhS-abstract.html (English)

or in Swedish:

http://www.ling.su.se/staff/olle/Karis-98.html (Swedish)

Well, that was a bit long, but I hope I could be
of any help.

Oh, and Pablo, is this non-affiliated conlanger Swedish?
It would be interesting to get in touch with another
Swedish conlanger. Afaik, we're not that many. :)

/ Daniel