Re: Kyrgyz was Re: Zetowvu / Ezotwuv (new conlang)

En réponse à Joe <joe@...>:

> On Tuesday 25 February 2003 9:14 pm, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> > En réponse à Joe <joe@...>:
> > > > Which nasals are being merged?  /E~/ and /9~/?
> > >
> > > I'd expect it to be /a~/ and /O~/ they sound much the same to me.
> >
> > But not to any French-speaking person in the world! They sound
> awfully
> > different to me!!
> >
>
> Really?  I struggle telling the difference.
Yet the difference is huge! [a~] is open front unrounded, [O~] open-mid back
rounded. They have nothing alike except the nasality.

  /9~/ is as in <un>, right?
> And
> /E~/ as in <matin>?
Exactly.

  They don't sound anything alike to me.

Yet they are identical except for roundedness. [E~] is open-mid front
unrounded, [9~] is open-mid front rounded. They are really nearly identical. I
know many people who don't hear the difference and they sound very much alike
to me.

  Stupid
> phonemic
> differences between languages.
>
Actually, I find that French follows quite well actual acoustic differences
here.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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