Re: Obscenities

On 30 Aug, Matthew Kehrt wrote:
>Hmmmm...
>
>Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't the Hebrew /x/ different from the german
>/x/?  It seems rougher to me.
    I'm also a little puzzled by your question, Matthew.
If you're asking how the German [x] differs from the
Hebrew [x], they obviously don't, both being
voiceless velar fricatives.
    What I _think_ you may be referring to
(and please correct me if I am wrong),
is comparing the  German "ch" against the
Hebrew "chaf (without dagesh)". For example: AFAIK,
words in Hebrew with "chaf" (or "hhet" for those who
don't maintain the difference) are _always_  [x],
 or an unvoiced _velar_ fricative. In German, however,
the _written_ "ch" is sometimes pronounced as [x]
(as in  "doch" or "noch") and sometimes as a voiceless
_palatal_ fricative ("c cedilla", unicode U+00E7,
if I'm not mistaken), such as the words "ich" or "nicht".
    If you are referring to the sound of a palatal
fricative versus a velar fricative, I think that I
might agree that the velar seems a bit "rougher".
(In fact, the typical way an Israeli shows (verbal)
disgust, is to produce a long voiceless velar
fricative. I get [x:] a lot from my kids every time
I play music that proves I'm on the other side
of the generation gap! As in:   " [x:]!!  You really like
that garbage?"   :-)  )


Dan Sulani

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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.