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

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)