Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

Hi!

Danny Wier <dawiertx@...> writes:
>...
> >   circumfixes, e.g. Kabil verb @gm@r 'to gather':
> >   1sg g@mr@.gh, 2sg t.g@mr@.D, 3sg (masc) y.@gm@r, 3sg (fem)
> >   t.@gm@r, 1pl n.@gm@r, 2pl (masc) t.g@mr@.m, 2pl (fem) t.g@mr@.mt,
> >   3pl (masc) g@mr@.n, 3pl (fem) g@mr@.nt.
>
>...
> The Kabyle examples with all its schwas (written 'e' in Latin but not
> written in Arabic) almost make one want to think the language has no
> phonemic vowels!
And is that so?  Or are there vowels?

I tried to pronounce the words without schwas.  It is possible, but
often, the linking elements between the consonants could be
interpreted as weak schwas.  And these occur precisely (at least for
me) between those consonants that have a schwa in the above list.

When I first heard a Berber language spoken (when someone talked to
his father on the phone) I could not believe it.  I thought this is by
far the language with the least vowels I'm ever heard.  Unfortunately,
I was not able to find longer texts as sound files on the WWW.  I'd
love to listen to it!

I liked phone sequences like [fqv] and [qT] and [XT].  The language
was pronounced [T&m&zIXT] (romanised: Tamaziqht?) and one word I
remember was [T&fqvOqT].

**Henrik