Re: Mbasa Vowels

On Friday 05 October 2001 01:07, David Peterson wrote:

> If you can find an Arabic sample, it's the letter called "ayn".
> Kind of sounds like choking.  The easiest way to think about it is
> this: If you try to make the purest [i], and then greatly constrict
> the place of articulation and try to throw a vowel after it, you'll
> naturally get a [j]; if you do the same thing with [u] you get [w];
> if you do the same thing with [A] you get the sound above.  So,
> make an [A], and then greatly constrict the passage; you'll get a
> [?/] (and I'm sorry I don't know the official symbol for this).
That's the clearest explanation I've ever seen; thanks!

   Irina

--
irina@valdyas.org                        http://www.valdyas.org/irina
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