OT: YAGPT: velar vs. uvular (was: my phonology)

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 14:03:27 -0000, Christian Thalmann <cinga@...> wrote:

>--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@Y...> wrote:
>
>> >I think /C/
>> >is so much different from /x/ that a contrast would be feasible.
>>
>> You might be cheated by your German ears. I believe that German /x/
>> often tends to be [X]. At least I think I can observe that I pronounce my
>> German /x/ further back in the mouth than my German /k/.
>
>German Ach-Laut is usually somewhere in between [X] and [x] --
>[x_-] maybe?
>
>I can pronounce both of the latter, and consider them quite
>distinct.  [C] and [x] sound very different to me.  The Russians
>at my institute use [x] in "ich", and it doesn't sound like
>either High German [C], High German [x_-] or Swiss [X].
Swiss /x/ and standard German /x/ have different sounds, but I'd say the
difference is rather in the manner of articulation than in the point of
articulation: Swiss /x/ tends to be lightly trilled [R\_0].

Have you ever heard the Highest Alemannic dialect of Bernese Oberland (very
different from Bernese dialect). In words such as /xats/ 'cat', /'lax:@/
'laugh', or /'ts&:xni/ 'ten', they have a sound that's quite similar to a
[C], or at least much more similar to it than other Swiss German/standard
German pronunciations of /x/. It's often described as soft.

kry@s:
j. 'mach' wust

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