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

On Tuesday 25 February 2003 9:45 pm, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> 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.
I know, but it still seems weird.  Anyway, what have they merged into?

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