Re: Voiced Velar Fricative

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Bates" <christopher.bates@...>

> Is gh (i don't know the ascii ways of representing IPA sounds, but I
> mean a voiced velar fricative) common? I think english used to have the
> sound, as did welsh (or at least g used to be mutated to gh a long time
> ago) but for some reason it disappeared. I just wondered because I love
> the sound for some reason but I don't want to add it if its extremely
> uncommon in natural languages. Thanks in advance,
Aren't the "r"s in both French and German considered voiced velar fricatives
of sorts?  They differ slightly; I've heard the French "r" described as a
"uvular scrape."  And some Germans gutterally trill their "r"s, while
leaving them off when they occur finally.  In Old English, there was
intervocalic "g"; between back vowels, it was (we think) a voice velar
fricative accompanied by a rounding of the lips (akin to the kw --> p
development that's been discussed of late), which is why fugol turned into
"fowl," lagu into "law," and so forth.  The velar fricative dropped out but
the rounding remained.  I am unsure, though, what you would call the "r"s in
French and German.  The voiced velar fricative occurs in the Teonaht
alphabet, but it is only very rarely used, along with a number of sounds
that have graphic representation in the Renuon (possibly there for the
spelling of foreign words) (or because Sally Caves got too slap-happy in her
salad days).


Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."

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