Re: Harsh vs. Soft Sounds

Hello,

Andreas:

> I've always felt that voiceless stops are "clearer", or
> "purer", than voiced ones.
Agreed.

> Similarly with spirant frics, but for some reason not
> sibilants - [z] and [Z] sounds at least as nifty as [s] and [S].
Disagree here. [Z] does not arouse any particular emotion, but [z] is a
sound I positively dislike (one of the reason I like Swedish ;-)). [v]
is also pretty ugly. [D] isn't, [G] is ok, and [h\] is positively cool.

Anyway, in Russian usage 'soft' means 'palatalized', so I'm no expert
here.

In another email, Andreas wrote:
> As you've probably gathered by now, I hold German to be a more
beautiful-
> sounding language than French. Apparently a minority opinion ...
Count me in.

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

Nid byd, byd heb wybodaeth
                 --Welsh saying

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