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Re: Describing the Welsh LL to non-linguists

From:R A Brown <ray@...>
Date:Friday, November 14, 2008, 14:32
Lars Finsen wrote:
> Den 14. nov. 2008 kl. 14.10 skrev Veoler: > >> I usually describe it as a "harsh voiceless l" (where the "harshness" >> implies the difference between the approximant and the fricative). >> Even more non-linguistic maybe that it is a "raw hissing sound" (well, >> "hissing" to me implies high-pitch, is there some other word for >> "low-pitch hissing"? That would be more accurate). > > I have a couple of tunes by Gwenan Gibbard, and I have thought that > she's been overdoing both her /K/'s and /L/'s a little,
{puzzled} There is no /L/ in Welsh (maybe she was singing a different language?) But having just listened to a clip of her singing, her /K/ sounds to me just what I would expect (I did live in Wales for 22 years) - it doesn't sound at all overdone (but I wish I could trill my /r/ the way she does :)
> but perhaps not > after all, if what you say is right. She would be a native, I suppose.
Indeed she is - that's why her /K/ sounds very Welsh :)
>> With the >> synaesthesia turned on I would say that it taste as gooseberry and >> feels like a refreshing breeze. > > Hmmm, to me it's got more like a milky taste, not sour at all. Not fatty > either, so perhaps low-fat milk. It feels more like a gale the way Ms. > Gibbard pronounces it.
Yep - I wouldn't think of it as refreshing breeze either.
> The voiceless l is found in the north of Norway as well, btw, but there > it's rather more of an approximant than a fricative.
{scratches head} Isn't a voiced approximant lateral just plain ol' [l]? -- Ray ================================== http://www.carolandray.plus.com ================================== Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora. [William of Ockham]

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Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>