Re: my iconic alphabet

En réponse à Nathan Richardson <nathan000000@...>:

> Hi Cristophe, this is Nathan again---"iconic alphabet"
> guy. I had a few questions, if you don't mind me
> picking your brain for linguistic information.
>
Hehe, the questions have already been amply replied, but since this mail was
namely (if "Cristophe" is supposed to refer to me ;)) - sorry, but I'm picky
about the orthography of my name ;)) -) directed to me, I felt I had to add my
two Eurocents ;)) .

>
> Thank you for that clarification---it helps! I have a
> question about that (maybe you don't have all the
> resources to answer it, but I'll ask anyway). Some of
> the different IPA phonemes sound very similar, at
> least to my English ears.
As you said "to my English ears". It's the root of the problem here :)) .

 I understand that some
> language speakers have no problem discerning them,
> such as the Arabs with /k/ and /q/. But does every IPA
> phoneme one <a
> href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet">the
> chart</a> contrast with every other IPA phoneme in at
> least one language?
>
Yes, it's the design principle. If you take any pair of symbols in this IPA,
there's at least one language out there that distinguishes them phonemically.

> That is, does any one language use the postalveolar,
> retroflex, and/or retroflex "sh" sound in a
> semantically distinctive way? Does any one language
> use the alveolar, retroflex, and/or palatal "l" sound
> in a semantically distinctive way? If so, then my
> reaction is "wow!" I need to come up with a lot more
> base shapes for place of articulation.
>
The IPA only has sounds which are phonemically distinguished as pairs, not as
triplets, but what you're saying is not implausible either, as others have
already replied :) . If I may add an example (Jan can correct me but I think I
remember it correctly), Polish IIRC distinguishes alveolar, post-alveolar and
alveolo-palatal fricatives :)) .

And some languages make even stranger distinctions that the IPA has to mark
with diacritics, like Basque which IIRC distinguishes apico-alveolar and lamino-
alveolar voiceless fricatives (same position of the tongue, except that in the
first case the tip of the tongue touches the palate, while in the second one
the blade of the tongue touches it) and has also the voiceless post-alveolar
fricative :))) .

>
> Does German also have a postalveolar "sh" sound?
>
Yep, it's normally written "sch".

>
> On the IPA chart, where is the /w/ sound? I would
> think it would be in the bilabial approximant box, but
> that's empty.
>
As as already been said, /w/ is not bilabial but labiovelar, i.e. it's a double
articulation, and thus cannot be put in the main chart as this one lists only
single-articulation sounds (and only the main pulmonic ones). /w/ is among
the "other symbols" on the lower left-hand corner of the chart.

> Anyway, thanks for your time Christophe.
>
You're welcome! Feel free to ask any other question :) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

It takes a straight mind to create a twisted conlang.

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