Re: Questions on Proto-Indo-European

En réponse à Quentin Read <quonton79@...>:

> So would the b sound of Spanish (where the lips don't
> touch) be similar to the postulated bh sound?
No, since the sound you refer to is technically a bilabial fricative, while *bh
was probably a real stop (thus with full closure of the lips).

  And if
> only a small breath separated b from bh, wouldn't it
> be hard to tell them apart in speech?
>
Well, Mandarin speakers have no trouble distinguishing [p] and [ph] in speech,
but have a lot of trouble with [p] and [b]. It's just a matter of what you're
used to distinguish. For you, this "small breath" is hard to notice, but for
the people who actually have such a sound it doesn't seem to be such a problem,
and they would rather find distinctions that *you* make so small that they
can't understand how you tell them apart! :))

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

Replies