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Re: Initial /?/ (was: Number)

From:J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...>
Date:Monday, August 6, 2001, 17:57
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.