Re: Describing the Welsh LL to non-linguists

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, but perhaps
not after all, if what you say is right. She would be a native, I
suppose.

> 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.

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.

LEF

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