Re: The letter j\

In a message dated 04/18/02 5:09:53 PM, faceloran@JUNO.COM writes:

<< I guess I have only three questions. Should it be easier to pronounce
/j\/ with rounded lips? Should /j\/ sound almost unvoiced but still easy
to tell from /C/? Does /j\/ often appear in combinations? >>

    No, no, and no.
    Aside from that, though, the constriction at the palate is very difficult
to maintain, which is why voicing is difficult to maintain, and palatal stops
casually move up to alveo-palatal affricates, like it did in Hindi.
Actually, to revise one of those "no"'s, it's easy enough to distinguish /C/
from /j\/, but it's not likely that /j\/ would maintain its voicing over the
years, or even its place of articulation, I believe...  Might become that "z"
with the loop at the bottom.

-David

"fawiT, Gug&g, tSagZil-a-Gariz, waj min DidZejsat wazid..."
"Soft, driven, slow and mad, like some new language..."
                    -Jim Morrison

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