Re: Vowel question, suggestion?

Muke Tever wrote:


>In another of the new Hadwan descendants I'm working on, I've discovered a
>diphthong spelled <öy> (and long <öyh>).
>
>This arises historically as <ai> becomes <oi> /OI/.  When there's original
><aio> /AIU/ it would become /OIy/, which is impossible for me to pronounce,
>so I called it <öy>.
>
>An example of where this appears:
>
>    khoi   /xOI/   "to recline"   < haic
>    =>khöy /x__/   "I recline"    < haió
>    khoji  /xOji/  "he reclines"  < haiic
>    khöyng /x__N/  "they recline" < haioñc
>
>[i.e., verbs in -oi.  The normal outcome being like:]
>
>    'wazh'  /wAZ/   "to promise"   < wazhc
>    wazhy   /wAZy/  "I promise"    < wazhó
>    wazhi   /wAZi/  "he promises"  < wazhic
>    wazhung /wAZyN/ "they promise" < wazhoñc
>
>Long <öyh> appears so far in <Göyh> "life (nom)" only, but then I only have
>about ten words or so so far.
>
>My question is, can suggest a reasonable phonetic value for <öy> ?   I
>thought maybe [9I] or [VH] ...   But I can't tell! ;p   Any help would be
>appreciated.  What would be most likely in your particular ears?
I'm a little behind on SAMPA, but I'll assume your {ö} is mid front rounded
(like German) and {y} is high front rounded.  In that case it would be
likely for speakers to keep the lips rounded throughout. If a vowel
followed, you'd have the high fr.rounded glide of French "nuit", [H] IIRC.
Alternatively, the high glide might be unrounded; then you'd end up with
something a little easier, similar to Dutch {ui} [öI] as in "huis", "muis"
'house, mouse' (it's < Germanic *u: ).  Interestingly, this is usually
Anglicized to /aj/, even by the many folks of Dutch descent up here around
Holland Mich.  Names like Nieuwenhuis, Vandersluis are [n(j)uw@nhajs]
[vænd@rslais].   (The Rempts are cringing, I'm sure.....)

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