Re: Bat Sounds/Phonology Redux

This got bounced back to me by ListServe because my mailer decided to
format the thing as RTF.  But I'll try again as it may be of interest;
and I just hope my mailer behaves this time  :)
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[Read with monotype font, please]

On Friday, October 3, 2003, at 01:15 , J. K. Hoffman wrote:

>> Date:    Wed, 1 Oct 2003 23:23:56 -0400
>> From:    Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
>> Subject: Re: Bat Sounds/Phonology Redux
>>
>> On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 09:18:07 -0700, Adam Walker <carrajena@...>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Well, Zulu uses "x", "c" and "q" to represent clicks.
>>> "X" is lateral. "Q" is palatal.  And "c" is alveolar,
>>> IIRC.
>>
>>
>> I think "c" is dental and "q" is alveolar in Zulu (and Xhosa). Palatal
>> clicks aren't very common.

'sright.

>> ------------------------------
>
> I guess I need to think about *that* some more.  Xhosa was the language
> I was thinking of when I made reference to African languagesm but it
> hadn't occured to me that they would used more than one kind of click!
Xhosa has quite a few.  They are:
                            DENTAL    ALVEOLAR    LATERAL
1. unvoiced & unaspirated      c           q          x

2.   unvoiced & aspirated      ch          qh         xh

3.                 voiced      gc          gq         gx

4.         unvoiced nasal      nc          nq         nx

5.           voiced nasal      ngc         ngq        ngx

6.  prenasalized unvoiced*     nkc         nkq        nkx

*The Bantu languages have only open syllables, but syllable initial
prenasalized plosives are common in all the Bantulangs I've come across.
In Xhosa prenasalized series the |k| is not pronounced and used merely to
show that the nasal and the click are pronounced separately, the nasal
being [N] in each case.

Zulu has the same series 1 to 3 as above, but AFAIK only one series of
nasal clicks (voiced, I believe) which is written like 4 above.

[snip]

> expression.  How is it used in Xhosa and Zulu?
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On Friday, October 3, 2003, at 02:35 , Stone Gordonssen wrote:
[snip]
> Zulu, if I remember rightly, uses them as consonants.
Indeed, you do remember rightly.  Zulu & Xhosa use them just like any other
consonant in their languages, e.g.
umXhosa "a Xhosa person"; abaXhosa "Xhosa people"; isiXhosa "Xhosa
language".
iculo "song"; iqanda "egg"; ixhego "old man"; incoko "conversation";
incwadi "book, letter"; ingca "grass"; ucango "door"

(Examples from Xhosa).

Ray
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