Re: PHONO: unvoiced schwa

J Y S Czhang wrote:
>     I am suddenly curious about unvoiced schwa... as you may see from the
> email dialogue betwixt _moi_ and Christophe "Maggelity" Grandsire:
>
> CG >> >Unvoiced schwa then ;))) (a cool sound by the way ;) ).
>
> HZ >>     What's the IPA/X-SAMPA???
>
> CG >[@_0]. Looks like a smiley ;))) .
>
> HZ >>     Hmm, any languages with it?
>
> CG >I think some Native American languages do. They are good at voiceless
>
>>vowels :)) .
>
>
> HZ  Intriguing. How are they articulated/produced 0_o?
>
> CG >They are often called "murmured vowels", and that's exactly the effect.
>
>>When you murmur, you naturally pronounce unvoiced vowels. Just murmur a schwa
>>and you have it (and it indeed sounds very much like [h] :) ).
>
>
> HZ  I like this _megatem_ - esp'ly as I like the idea of schwa and /h/ being
> phonologically linked. I will add this as a schwa option in g0miileg0!!!!
>
> ________________________
>
> So! ok... any more info and bright shiny ideas to ferret around;) conlangin'
> peeps?
Japanese also has unvoiced vowels, AIUI, although it's not
phonemic...short /u/ and /i/ are unvoiced (sometimes called "silent",
but they're actually audible) and shortened between unvoiced consonants.
Unvoiced vowels are just whispered vowels.

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