Re: Hellenish oddities

On Wed, Nov 22, 2000 at 07:17:25AM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 21, 2000 at 10:53:14PM -0600, Eric Christopherson wrote:
> [snip]
> > I think phi-theta would actually be pronounced [pt_h] since it's so hard to
> > pronounce both with aspiration, but I could be wrong.
>
> Actually, you'd *have* to pronounce the /p/ as [p<h>] because of the
> [t<h>] sound attached to it. It's called the assimilation of aspirates.
Hmm, this still seems quite counterintuitive to me (I know, many things in
linguistics are). When I try it at least, I have to put a short pause
between [p_h] and [t_h]. Is it possible without a pause or vowel in between,
or would the pause just be an accepted part of the pronunciation?

--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo