Re: A BrSc a?

Raymond Brown wrote:
>At 5:45 pm +0000 28/4/02, Andreas Johansson wrote:
> >Raymond Brown wrote:
>[snip]
> >>
> >>The trouble with [G] is that it tends to become zero, or [j] before
>front
> >>vowels.
> >
> >Well, unless you've got a /j/ phoneme [G]>[j] isn't a problem.
>
>Yes, indeed.
>
> >Even [G]>zero
> >wouldn't necessarily spell trouble if you've got a strict CV syllable
> >structure.
>
>Agreed again.
>
>In fact - and keep it quite  :)    - I'm thinking of having a "zero-onset"
>phoneme is 'reformed BrSc' which might be just zero, but has allophones of
>[j] before front vowels and [w] before back vowels; before central vowels
>it could be [G] or even [?].
>
> >But both would be really strange allophones of /x/!
>
>Not necessarily.  In fact both modern Greek and Gaelic have /x/ with
>allophone of /C/ before front vowels, and a separate phoneme [G] which is
>/j/ before front vowels.
Yes, but the Greeks at least keep the voicing intact in these variations.
[x] and [j] as allophones of the same sound would be pretty extreme I do
think. Unless there were obvious morphological variations invloving this
allophony, I suspect it'd real quick be reinterpreted as two distinct
phonemes.

                                                   Andreas

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

Reply