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