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R: Re: R: Re: /H/ (was: An Unknown Conlang)

From:Mangiat <mangiat@...>
Date:Tuesday, July 11, 2000, 18:27
R. Brown wrote:

 >> Very true - and I'm not convinced /H/ has _phonemic_ status in French
> >either. > >> > > > >What is a 'phonemic status'? > > I mean whether [H] and [y] are both separate phonemes in French or whether > the two sounds are both allophones of a single phoneme /y/.
Thank you for the explanation. I found it really useful.
> As to phonemes and allophones, in both English and Italian the sounds [s] > and [z] occur but whereas in English both sounds have independent phonemic > status, i.e. /s/ and /z/ (e.g. zoo /zu:/ ~ Sue /su:/; lace /leis/ ~ laze > /leiz/ etc), in Italian they are allophones of a single phoneme, usually > written /s/. This is because whether written _s_ is pronounced [s] or
[z]
> depends upon their environment, thus: > [s] if initial before a vowel, if before a voiceless consonant, or if it
is
> geminated (doubled), e.g. sabato, seta; scudo, sforzo, astio; tassa,
basso.
> [z] if before a voiced consonant and, generally(1), when single between
two
> vowels, e.g. sbadato, smalto; vaso, esame, uso. > > (1) I know there are exceptions, but they a largely predictable, e.g. [s] > is retained after a prefix (risultare), in the suffix -oso and its > derivatives (curioso, curiosità) and in past participles of certain > irregular verbs (raso).
This applies in Spanish, I think, not in Italian. We don't have exceptions here, at least I think! it's always so difficult to analyze one's own language! Luca