Re: Chinese Dialect Question

Nik Taylor sikyal:

> JS Bangs wrote:
> > I don't think we can count this as "two kinds of 'r'". The distinction
> > between [4] and [r] is one of length in Spanish, phonemically /r/ and
> > /r:/. Their distribution attests to this--like geminates in most
> > languages, they do not contrast initially or finally. And as a geminate
> > /r:/ should not be considered a fully distinct phoneme. We do not say that
> > a language with /k g k: g:/ has four velar stops, do we?
>
> No, but when a language has only a single consonant that distinguishes
> "gemination", it's rather questionable whether it's useful to consider
> it truly gemination.
True. However, singular examples of gemination aren't unknown, and can be
phonologically useful. This actually poses a question: In those dialects
of Spanish that have a vowel quality difference in closed syllables, does
the first syllable of /perro/ behave differently from the one in /pero/?

> geminate, just as in the distinction between l/ll and n/n~.  Especially
> since the "geminate" form is the one used word-initially.  You'd expect
> the non-geminate form to be word-initial.
Not necessarily. I'd look at it this way: there's a single phoneme /r/,
pronounced [r] initially and finally and [4] medially, and of course when
two /r/'s collide they fuse to [r]. There's nothing unusual about that
distribution.

--
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"

And they answered, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground
of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our
interpersonal relationship."

And Jesus said, "What?"

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