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Re: The Combos [hj] [hw] and [gw] in Conlangs

From:andrew <hobbit@...>
Date:Wednesday, November 1, 2000, 9:31
Am 11/01 00:21  Eric Christopherson yscrifef:
> On Tue, Oct 31, 2000 at 11:50:00PM -0500, Roger Mills wrote: > > Leo Moser wrote: > > >Maori is one of the few other languages to > > >write a {WH}, but the history is different > > >there and actual pronunciation seems to > > >vary.> > > > > You probably know that Maori {wh} does correspond to /f/ in other Polynesian > > languages (except Hawaiian = /h/), and to both /p/ and /b/ in e.g. Malay and > > other western Austronesian languages. I've never seen a proper linguistic > > description of Maori, but my little "Beginner's Maori" by K. T. Harawira (a > > native) says: "_Wh_ is _not_ sounded as f in English..... Say the English > > word "what"...without the t... and you will have as near as possible the > > correct sound of _wh_." Perhaps his "near as possible" means _not quite > > but close_? My suspicion, based on the history, is that it's very likely a > > voiceless bilabial fricative (IPA l.c. phi). > > I read somewhere once that the actual sound varies according to dialect, with it > being pronounced /h/ in some dialects and like English <wh> in others > (whether this is meant as /w_0/ or /hw/ or what wasn't clear), and from the > description of a NZer I used to chat with on IRC (although himself not a > Maori), it sounded like /p\/ (phi). I guess that's all hearsay, but I know > I'm fond of the <wh>, whatever exact form it might take. >
My revised dictionary of Maori says under pronunciation "_wh_ is usually pronounced like _f_. In some districts it is spoken like an _h_ (e.g. in Hokianga) and in others like a _w_ (e.g. in Taranaki), in others again like _wh_ in _when_. I once saw a reference that said it was a bilabial fricative originally. I couldn't tell you where I read that now, dammit. /f/ has become standard for good Maori. - andrew. -- Andrew Smith, Intheologus hobbit@earthlight.co.nz Death is something you never live to regret.