Re: Chinese Dialect Question

Benct Philip Jonsson scripsit:

> Ever heard about Danish?  Basically _b, d, g_ are [b_0, d_0, g_0] while
> _p, t, k_ are [b_0_h, d_0_h, g_0_h] (really ugly transcription there),
Granted, but if pronounced in West Germanic fashion as [b, d, g, p_h,
t_h, k_h] the first three will merely be over-voiced and the last
three will be over-fortis, and there is no reasonably close sound that
will collide.  For that matter, [b_0, d_0, g_0] are not unknown in English
either, but nobody supposes that this is an unusual use of "b", "d", "g".

(The potato definitely interferes with both voicing and fortis
enunciation, evidently.)

> but after vowels and semivowels _b, d, g_ become _w, D, w/j_ and
> _p, t, k_ become [b_0, d_0, g_0].
Okay, "voiced" stops are spirantized and "unvoiced" ones are "voiced".
Again, not really outside the scope of the stop letters.  Cf. Spanish,
where the voicing is shown in the orthography but the spirantization
is not.

--
John Cowan  www.ccil.org/~cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com
Monday we watch-a Firefly's house, but he no come out.  He wasn't home.
Tuesday we go to the ball game, but he fool us.  He no show up.  Wednesday he
go to the ball game, and we fool him.  We no show up.  Thursday was a
double-header.  Nobody show up.  Friday it rained all day.  There was no ball
game, so we stayed home and we listened to it on-a the radio.  --Chicolini

Reply