Re: Syllable-Initial /N/

On Tue, Apr 01, 2003 at 04:50:51PM -0500, Roger Mills wrote:
> Teoh wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Apr 01, 2003 at 01:31:22AM -0600, Nik Taylor wrote:
> > > /N/ in non-English positions can be fun.  :-)  It's a great way to make
> > > an alien-sounding word without hard sounds.  :-)  Like, take gazh
> > > (/NaZ/), the word for "world" in Ivetsian.
> >
> > It's not *that* alien-sounding... even English speakers do it sometimes,
> > just unconsciously.
> Then why is it so difficult to get Engl. speakers to pronounce it in
> Indonesian??? Remember the various manglings of Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem's name,
> way back when?
One possible reason is that there is no written lexeme corresponding to
the sound. Possibly also the fact it doesn't happen in normal, "proper"
speech, only in derisive imitations. Just my wild guess, though. It's just
like Hokkien speakers who deride English as being a nasal language, as a
result of their attempts to imitate unusual sounds. Actually Hokkien has a
lot more nasal sounds than English.

> > > /gl/ became /dl/ which in turn became /dK\/ -> /K\/ (that's voiced
> > > lateral fricative if I got the symbol wrong)
> > [snip]
> >
> > Now, *that* is a cool sound. I need to introduce that sound into
> > Ebisedian's daughter langs. :-)
> >
> Agree.  Gwr has it, written "ll" in romanization.  I'd assumed it came only
> from *dVlV... but *gVlV... is certainly a possibility too.
I'm thinking of introducing as a syllabic sound into one of Ebisedian's
daughter langs...


T

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