Re: Initial /?/ (was: Number)
| From: | J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, August 6, 2001, 17:57 |
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Jesse Bangs wrote:
> > I suspect there are plenty of languages with /?-/ : /0-/ contrast,
> > provided
> > they also contrast in other positions. Tonga, Samoa, Hawaiian to
> > my
> > knowledge. It's certainly audible in the flow of speech; in list
> > pronunciation there might be a tendency, as in English, for
> > automatic
> > glottal onset.
>
> I kind of doubt this. I'm just a native English speaker, so my opinion
> isn't everything, but while I can easily distinguish [pa?e] from [pa.e],
> I can barely tell the difference between [?a] and [a].
Sure, in isolation. But we don't speak single words in isolation, we string
them together. It's pretty easy to distinguish [?a] and [a] if they're
preceded by another word, especially one which ends in a vowel (as all words
in Tongan, Samoan and Hawai'ian do). That was Roger's point in the last
sentence of the passage you quote.
Matt.
Matt.