Re: Brr (was: Re: A few questions about linguistics concerning my new project)

From: "David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@...>

> Among other things, I noticed the following distinctions in the
> Arabic that I was taught:
> /a/ > [@]
>
> /a:/ > [A:] / C["emphatic"]_
> /a:/ > [a:] / elsewhere
>
> /i/ > [E] / C["emphatic"]_
> /i/ > [I] / elsewhere
>
> /i:/ > [e] / C["emphatic"]_
> /i:/ > [i] / elsewhere
>
> /u/ > [O] / C["emphatic"]_
> /u/ > [U] / elsewhere
>
> /u:/ > [o] / C["emphatic"]_
> /u:/ > [u] / elsewhere
>
> The emphatic consonants are:
>
> /q/, /t_?\/, /d_?\/, /s_?\/, /D_?\/, /?\/, /X\/, /r/, sometimes /l/.
> Maybe /G/, too.  Nah, maybe not.
Well, *that* explains Koran/Quran, and mujahideen/mujahedeen & Hizbullah/Hezbollah
(if "h" is /X\/), but not Muhammad/Mohammed.

> Oh, and for what it's worth, don't the Inuit languages usually
> have a four vowel system?
Wikipedia offers:

"Almost all dialects of Inuktitut have only three basic vowels and make a phonemic
distinction between short and long forms of all vowels."

with the "e" and "o" alternatives we've been discussing in this thread.

Kou

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