Re: markjjones@HOTMAIL.COM

On Mar 6, 2005, at 11:02 PM, Steven Williams wrote:
>  --- Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> schrieb:
>> On Mar 6, 2005, at 9:33 PM, Steven Williams wrote:
>>> Indeed, [D] and [D_g] sound almost identical. I
>>> can't tell the difference myself, if it weren't
>>> for the effect that the emphatics have on vowels.
>> /D/ and /D_g/ sound very distinct to me.  They also
>> feel very different when i pronounce them.
> Am I doing it wrong, then? I'm pronouncing a [D], but
> I'm raising the back part of my tongue to the velum,
> the sides of my tongue touching my teeth. Very
> difficult articulation for me to make; I'm also trying
> to imitate as best I can sound samples I find on the
> Internet, since I don't know any native Arabic
> speakers personally to ask them for pointers.
Noooo....
You want _pharyngealization_, not _velarization_!
Pull the back part of your tongue *down and back*!
It's like a coarticulated |`ayin| pharyngeal approximant/fricative.
That explains why you were using the "velarized" diacritic...
Think /D_?\/, not /D_G/.


-Stephen (Steg)
  "only the extremes are logical;
   but they are absurd."
      ~ samuel butler

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