Re: Velarization (was: English: Thou)

>From: BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
>Subject: Re: Velarization (was: English: Thou)
>Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 04:01:08 +0200
>
>At 01:25 27.6.2000 +0000, Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:
>
>>Quick question: How does velarization work? What does it sound like? It's
>>one of a few phonetic traits that I don't understand.
>
>Quick answer: to co-articulate anything with the sound of the fricative
>Icelandic "g" in _dagur_.  In the particular case under discussion it
>refers to the exaggeration of the already velarized post-vocalic /l/ of
>English to the point where it becomes an [o]-like vowel.  Something similar
>seems to be found in the tendency for Old Norse "al" to show up as "/al"
>[awl] , as in _/alfur_ < _alfr_, or _/ul_ < _ul_ in _/ulfur_ <
>_ulfr_.  Methinks it applies to _o_ and _/o_ too, but can't recall an
>example at this sleepless hour!
Okay. I'm getting somewhat closer to understanding this. Perhaps you excuse
me, you see it's always hard to grasp written descriptions of sounds. Much
better to hear the sounds. If not possible, get examples from languages you
know. And that's what BP Jonsson is giving me, thank him.
  However, his examples don't really get me all the way. I'm having a hard
time seeing how the "dark l" and "alfur" > "a'lfur" can be examples of
sounds being pronounced with the voiced velar fricative co-articulated...I
mean, that's what I first guessed when I heard the word 'velarization' and
saw the IPA superscript 'x'. But I just thought "HUH?!". But then I don't
know how to pronounce bilabial fricatives either (without ending up with
either [w], [v], or [b], or their unvoiced equivalents).

Oskar
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