Re: That pesky H again (was: varia)

BP Jonsson wrote:

> At 02:49 +0000 7.2.2000, Ed Heil wrote:
>
> >
> >To produce [@], one produces voice, keeps the nasal port closed, and holds
> >the oral articulators in a particular position (a fairly slack one).
>
> The point is that that particular position is the oral articulators'
> position of rest -- essentially the position they would have when
> respirating with your mouth slightly open.
Yes, that's what I meant by "a fairly slack one."

> >To produced voiced consonants or other vowels, one also produces voice,
> >but one holds the oral articulators and nasal port in whatever positions
> >are appropriater for those consonants or vowels.
> >
> >So I think that voicing is only one characteristic of [@]; to talk about
> >voicing as co-articulation of [@] one would have to essentially redefine
> >[@] to get rid of all specifications except voicing, in which case you
> >have simply turned [@] into a synonym for voice.
> >
>
> You don't have to redefine [@]: sustained voice and [@] **are** the same
> thing. It is just that it happens to be convenient to use different terms
> in different contexts/functions.  "Palatalization", [i] and [j] are
> likewise "the same thing" in different functions.  I can see why this may
> bother you, but IMHO there is no need to bother.
I understand, and in fact in my original version of the post, which i
lost through an accident, I had said as much -- that voice was just
about the only particularly salient feature of [@], since the other
features are basically "leave the articulators in rest position", so
it isn't too much of a stretch to say "[@] and voice are the same
thing."  If you had to pick a phone to represent voicing, the way [i]
or [j] represent palatalization, [@] would be the one.

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"In the labyrinth of the alphabet the truth is hidden. It is one
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