Re: Some natlang questions?

--- In conlang@y..., Danny Wier <dawier@Y...> wrote:
> I'm gonna be laying low for a while, since I got a lot of stuff to
do.  This
> does include that conlang that I'm obsessed with a bit much.
>
> A couple questions in the meantime concerning a couple languages I
would like to
> try and teach myself: Hebrew and Japanese.
>
> First, how did Proto-Semitic vowels, traditionally reconstructed as
the same six
> vowels as Arabic (a a: i i: u u:) become the twelve vowels of Tiberian
Hebrew
> (and the seven Ashkenazic and five Sephardic vowels of Mod. Israeli)?
And the
> ten vowels of Aramaic?
Basic rules for Tiberian Hebrew:

In stressed syllables, or in open syllables immediately preceding the
stress, *a, *i, and *u become /A:/, /e:/ and /o:/

In open syllables which do not meet this conditions, vowels are reduced
to /@/, unless they follow a "gutteral" letter, in which case they
become "hatef" vowels (possibly pronounced [a_t], [E_t] and [O_t]
respectively, but the phonemic status of these sounds is far from
certain.

In unstressed closed syllables generally *a > /a/ and *i > /E/. *u
becomes either /o/ or /O/ (the so called kamatz katan)

Proto-Semitic long vowels generally stay the same, except that *a:
usually becomes /o:/ (sometimes it becomes /A:/)

*ay and *aw usually become /aji/ and /AwE/ when stressed, /ej/ and /ow/
otherwise.


Basic rules for Israeli Hebrew:

A > a
O > o
E > /e/ (but sometimes realized as [E] )

    Pretty much everything else stays the same, more or less


Basic rules for Ashkenazic Hebrew or Yiddish:

A > O or o
o: > o, 9j, or ej
e: > ej
Stress shifts to the penult (except when praying), and unstressed vowels
tend to be realized as [@] (again, except when praying).

    Otherwise mostly the same.


Yemenite Hebrew, I'm told, merges Tiberian /a/ and /E/ into [{]


I'm afraid I can't help you much as far as Japanese is concerned.

JDM


>
> Second, how do you pronounce /ti/, /di/, /si/ and /zi/ in Japanese?  I
see them
> so often written as chi, ji and shi, but I hear something more like
[ci], [Ji],
> [Ci].  Or something more like Mandarin (Pinyin) qi, ji, xi.  Also my
> Essentialist comments about Japanese should be amended with the phrase
"...
> because I'm trying to learn it and it's kicking my ass!"
>
> Thanx in advance, and I'll try and put up a webpage and also send you
all some
> more data on Tech soon.
>
> ~DaW~
>
>
> _________________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com