Re: "Coming out" about conlanging to people in Academia [was Re:Caryatic]

David Peterson wrote:

>   That was the time when I noticed, of all odd things (and
> I swear to you, this is true), he pronounced the word "okay" as [N=.'q_he]
> (in case I'm getting the IPA wrong, that's a syllabic uvular nasal, a
> voiceless, aspirated uvular plosive and a close-mid, tense, unrounded front
> vowel).  He's a native speaker of English, and both of his parents are, as
> well, and there parents before them, and so on.  He's never had exposure to
> uvular plosives, to my knowledge.  It's so weird!
The question seems to be:  is this a regular feature of his speech when
he uses the word "okay", or is this something that happened just once?
I wouldn't be too surprised to hear someone once in a while articulate
a uvular stop when the norm for their idiolect and surrounding dialect is
velar.

Of course, the syllabic nasal in the beginning syllable is commonplace.

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
  entos amômêton kallipon ouk ethelôn;
autos d' exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeinê
  erretô; exautês ktêsomai ou kakiô" - Arkhilokhos