Re: Announcement: New auxlang "Choton"

Hi
!
Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> writes:
> I wrote:
> >   |Pfad|  /pfa:d/ [pfa:t]
>...
> Reminds me; is it really [pf]? Since it's usually described as an affricate, I
> had assumed it's really [pp\] - which I find easier to pronounce, and in fact
> is what I use when speaking German - but _every_ phonetic transcription I've
> seen seems to write [pf].
Ah!  Yes, it's [pf].  I just tried [pp\] and it is not perfectly
right.

Actually, it never occurred to me that [pf] cannot technically be an
affricate because it's bilabial+labialdental, but I think it still is
one:

When I pronounce it, there is no need to adjust the position of the
jaw to switch from bilabial to labiodental.  My upper teeth already
touch the lower lip while the plosive is closed by the upper lip.
When the plosive part opens, there is no need to adjust anything: the
[f] is already perfectly in position for the fricative part.  So I'd
say that although not exactly the same point of articulation, it is
still an affricate since nothing is moved, since upper-lip with
lower-lip and upper-teeth with lower-lip can touch at the same time.

(This all describes my own pronunciation.  I used a different word,
namely |hüpfen| to check all this, since my pronunciation of initial
/pf/ would be artificial for me and not native since my dialect
(def. a) does not have initial /pf/, but only medial.)

My girl friend (native German, too :-)) says she agrees with this
description (and she even has a native initial [pf]). :-)

**Henrik

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