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

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.


--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo