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Re: Need some help with terms: was "rhotic miscellany"

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Sunday, November 7, 2004, 3:12
Quoting Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>:

> Mark J. Reed wrote:
> > .... Retroflex sounds are made by > > touching the palate - with the tip of the tongue, which must be curled > > back to accomplish this. > > > > But I may have hit upon a source of confusion. I interpret "retroflex" > > to require a *complete* backwards curling of the tongue, such that it is > > the *bottom* of the tongue tip which makes contact (or nearly so) with > > the palate. > > Disagree. That's one way, though I suspect not the usual way, of pronouncing > e.g. Hindi "t., d.". Curling the tongue tip back so far that the underside > contacts the palate seems a rather awkward motion, though perhaps ANADEW
Indeedy; Swedish got a whole series of them, altho all but /r/ are usually interpreted as phonemically /r/+dental. The more specific term for these is "sublaminal". I guess Sally's /r/ could be labeled an apical retroflex. Andreas PS These are all pronounced somewhere in the postalveolar-alveopalatal area. If you're tongue is nimble enough, it's possible to produce a sublaminal sound as far back as the velum. Such sounds, however, are apparently used in no lang, nat or con.

Replies

Sally Caves <scaves@...>
Simon Richard Clarkstone <s.r.clarkstone@...>