Re: Phonemes

Dave Mezynski wrote:

> I'm new at this...all apologies if this has been hashed to death.
>
> The advice I have suggests trying to make up new sounds to create a
> language.  This way, it says, you can avoid making too "Englishy".
>
> I've tried using the charts of nasals, fricatives, dentals, etc and making
> new sounds but they all end up sounding like L's or F's.  How did you guys
> start the ball rolling?
Well... try an Englishy pronunciation and make some changes, like avoiding
diphtongs and schwas, pronouncing all <t>'s as in _stop_ (no aspiration: no
puff of air after the /t/).

Then try to add new sounds: try different points of articulations like
palatal: try saying "yes" without voicing <y> and you get someting like /ç/,
try then making it plosive by moving your tongue upper till it closes the
air flux.  Or the uvulars by pronuncing a <k> the backest you can.

> Thank you for your help and a very entertaining listserv.
>
> Dave
-- Carlos Th