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Re: Hellenish oddities

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Sunday, November 26, 2000, 21:43
Eric Christopherson wrote:
> > The double aspirates are probably just an Ancient Greek spelling > > convention. It is anatomically very hard/impossible to pronounce two > > aspirates without a vowel between them (since aspiration is essentially > > voicelessness in the beginning of the following vowel), and besides > > Sanskrit writes plain voiced stop + voiced aspirate in cognate words. > > Thank you, Philip! That's what I've been thinking all along :)
It's not impossible at all, altho there is what could be considered a voiceless schwa between the two. The aspiration is essentially a puff of air, there's no reason to turn on voicing and then turn it back off for the second part. -- Dievas dave dantis; Dievas duos duonos God gave teeth; God will give bread - Lithuanian proverb ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor