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

From:Benct Philip Jonsson <conlang@...>
Date:Friday, August 3, 2007, 11:46
R A Brown skrev:
> ROGER MILLS wrote: >> I imagined that the language had evolved that way so that >> the people wouldn't have to open their mouths very wide in the >> freezing cold :-)) > > Interesting idea :)
I once heard an Icelandic woman suggest that Icelandic sounds the way it does because people had to shout against the wind all the time!
> ------------------------- > > Benct Philip Jonsson wrote: > [snip] > > Icelandic does it with a lack of voiced stops, > > lots of strong aspiration and preaspiration > > Scots Gaelic's like that also - we southerners find it quite cold up > there in Scotland :)
Faroese and some western Norwegian dialects too. Probably an areal feature of the North Atlantic! :-) It is a fact that a majority of the thralls on viking age Iceland, and hence by the dynamics of slavery societies a majority of the population, were of Irish and Gaelic descent.
> > and most importantly voiceless sonorants. > > Voiceless sonorants are not too common, but are they really more > prevalent in languages from cold climates?
Probably not. [K], which is arguably the 'coldest' sound in Icelandic, was prominent in Proto-Semitic.
> Again one could, in order to give the language a Brr factor, construct > one with a vaguely Icelandic feel - but again it would, of course, be > completely lost on those who know nothing of Icelandic.
> Personally I doubt very much that any phonetic or phonological system is > "cold language" per_se. I don't think so. Strong aspiration, prevalence of voiceless sounds, [K], [X] and other voiceless fricatives, and not least the fact that short vowels are realized voiceless before preaspirated stops give a positively cold lámatyáve. Actually Icelandic would sound even colder if it also lacked voiced fricatives and sonorants!
> To give the language a Brr factor, one surely > needs to have its literary texts dealing quite a bit with its snowy, icy > environment in which the language is spoken.
That helps, certainly.
> > -- > > Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > a shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot > > (Max Weinreich) > > So Basque iz a dialekt von voss? >
It has ETA and a fishing fleet! :-) /BP 8^)> -- Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No man forgets his original trade: the rights of nations and of kings sink into questions of grammar, if grammarians discuss them. -Dr. Samuel Johnson (1707 - 1784)