Re: CHAT: Pharyngeal vs. Epiglottal

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002 03:07:28 -0500, Danny Wier <dawier@...> wrote:

>Are there any natural or constructed languages that phonemically
>distinguish epiglottals from pharyngeals or glottals? Are there any
>languages that even *have* epiglottals?
>
>Personally, epiglottal consonants give me a sore throat, so I hope not...
Dahalo has them, as well as a few dental clicks (it's not Khoisan, IIRC
it's Cushitic or AfroAsiatic) and lateral fricatives (alveolar & palatal).

The pharyngeals of Nootka (aka Nuuchahnulth) involve epiglottal
constriction.

One of the Daghestan (NE Caucasian) languages, Agul (iirc), opposes
pharyngeals and epiglottals, though it's the only language I'm aware of
that does so.

I have seen one or two articles which seem to point to the difference
between epiglottals and pharyngeals as one of epiglottal trilling (in the
epiglottals) vs non-trilling ('true' pharyngeals), both articulations
involving aryepiglottal constriction.

Bfowol