Re: Velarization (was: English: Thou)

>From: Oskar Gudlaugsson <hr_oskar@...>
>Quick question: How does velarization work? What does it sound like? It's
>one of a few phonetic traits that I don't understand.
Velarization (or pharyngealization) is a secondary feature of consonants and
vowels.  IPA marks consonants with a tilde through the letter, while vowels
are followed with a superscript turned script a.  Velarized consonants are a
feature of Arabic and Irish Gaelic; in the former they are called "emphatic"
and the latter "broad".  In Irish, such consonants, when preceding or
following a, o, u, ae and ao are "broad", while those next to e and i are
"slender".  Slender consonants are exactly like the "soft" consonants of
Russian, that is, palatized.  The Arabic "emphatics" are s.aad, d.aad, t.aa,
dh.aa (the dentals), h.aa and `ayn (the pharyngeals).  (qaaf, khaa and ghayn
are considered by some to be "emphatic"; these are the uvulars.)

The same way you advance your tongue forward as though you were uttering the
vowel [i] for "slender" consonants, you move your tongue backward as you
were saying [u] (without the rounded lips).  Or the root of the tongue draws
back toward the pharynx, as you were pronouncing Arabic "emphatic"
consonants.  This gives the consonant a "darker" sound -- the difference
between "crunchy" and "crispy", if you compare them to wafers, crackers and
potato/tortilla chips.

Pharyngealized vowels are simply vowels with a retracted tongue root/back.
Maltese has pharyngealized vowels (I think just /a/), as do (?) North
Caucasian languages.  In an earlier post, someone (gawd why do I forget)
posted the list of Ubykh, a NW Cauc. language, which has a whole set of
velarized/pharyngealized consonants.

Even though precisely the two secondary features are different in actual
pronunciation, they are marked with the same IPA diacritic and are never
phonemic individually.

You might wanna practice these to get a better feel for them.  Just
pronounce all your consonants while you thicken the back of your tongue.
Compare them with palatized consonants, where the tongue (the surface behind
the tip) is drawn upward and forward.

Daniel A. Wier  ¶¦¬þ
Lufkin, Texas USA
http://communities.msn.com/DannysDoubleWideontheWeb
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