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

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.