Re: Láadan and woman's speak

Ray Brown wrote:

>Herman Miller replied:
>>I've always liked the sound of lateral fricatives. I used a voiceless
>>*palatal* lateral fricative in one of my Elvish languages.
>
>To which at 2:01 pm -0500 20/5/00, Matt Pearson replied:
>>Tokana also has this sound.  Actually, it's more of a postalveolar
>>lateral fricative (same point of articulation as English /S/).
>
>That's the Welsh "ll" which I've also heard in Zulu & Xhosa (two of the
>Nguni languages).  But I think that Herman is saying he also used a palatal
>variety, not that the Welsh one is palatal (which it most certainly isn't).
From what I've been able to determine, the Welsh/Zulu voiceless
lateral fricative is alveolar and apical (closure made at or near
the tip of the tongue, like /l/).  The Tokana voiceless lateral
is *post*alveolar and laminal (closure made with the body of
the tongue).  Thus, it's probably closer acoustically to Herman's
palatal fricative than to the Welsh/Zulu sound.

Matt.