Re: First Sound Recording of Asha'ille!

Arthaey Angosii wrote at 2005-03-05 22:25:08 (-0800)
 > Multi-comment reply to conserve posting limits...
 >
 >
 > T'ves emaelivpeith René Uittenbogaard:
 > > Wow - the recordings sound awesome! :) I particularly like the [n:]
 > > (in line 1), [k_>] in line 6, and |mmavtec|.
 >
 > Is my |k'| really an ejective? I thought ejectives were strange sounds
 > to be found in Semitic languages. I think of |k'| as a pure /k/ sound
 > (or perhaps an aspirated variant thereof). Phoneticians, correct me if
 > I'm wrong?

It sounds like an ejective to me (or, at least, it sounds like I do
when I try to produce an ejective).  This does not surprise me.  If
your language (i.e. English) doesn't make a distinction of
glottalization, and you try to produce a pure voiceless plosive
without any accompanying vowel, the easiest thing to do is close the
glottis and use glottalic initiation, that is, an ejective.  At least
that's what I tend to do. ( I remember trying to produce totally pure
consonants as a child, dissatisfied that they always seemed to come in
the form of CV syllables... )

(Are there ejectives in Semitic languages?  [checks...] Yes, in
Ethiopian Semitic and South Arabian languages.)


 >
 > T'ves emaelivpeith Tim May:
 > > Why have you provided an IPA transcription of the morphemic breakdown
 > > rather than the sentences as uttered? (That is what's going on there,
 > > isn't it?)
 >
 > Yes, that is what's going on. I have a script that generates the
 > webpage you see. All I give the script is the Asha'ille sentence
 > (plus morphemic boundary markings) and the free English
 > translation, and the program looks up all the other information
 > from my dictionary. That's why the IPA is based on the morphemes,
 > rather than the surface forms in the sentence. It's a drawback, but
 > unless people really want to see a "real" IPA trascription..?
 >

Well, I was interested to compare what I thought I was hearing with
what you thought you were saying - to see how many glottal stops there
are, for instance.  Don't put yourself out on my account, though.

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