Re: Initial /?/ (was: Number)

David Peterson wrote:

> In a message dated 8/6/01 10:57:55 AM, pearson@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU writes:
>
> << 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. >>
>
>     Yes, but say I went up to my friend and said, "I want to go to the
> movies."  How on Earth would I be able to tell whether "I" began with a
> glottal stop or not?  Would there be a noticeable difference?
No, there wouldn't. At least, no audible difference, AFAIK.


> We do hear
> some words in isolation at the beggining of utterances.  If we didn't, then
> we'd just never stop speaking.
If a word could only ever appear in isolation (or at the beginning of an
utterance), then it would certainly be impossible to tell if that word began
with a glottal stop. But I doubt if any language has such words (except possibly
certain interjections). If I were trying to decide whether "I" in English began
with a glottal stop or not, I could simply listen for contexts in which "I" is
preceded by another word in the same utterance.

Suppose a young child learning to speak, say, Tongan, in which glottal stop is
phonemic, were trying to decide whether a particular word was [a] or [?a]. That
child would no doubt ignore utterance-initial occurrences of the word and
concentrate on utterance-internal occurrences to determine whether there was a
glottal stop or not.

Matt.

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