Re: Labiodental approximant?

At 12:17 pm +0100 1/3/00, Kristian Jensen wrote:
>James Campbell wrote:
>
>>Request for help:
>>
>>I always used to describe Jameldic "w" as being pronounced "halfway between
>>[English] v and w", but I'd like to clarify exactly what this sound is, and
>>how I should properly describe it. The upper teeth almost/just touch the
>>lower lip, where they would touch properly for /v/. Would this be a voiced
>>labiodental approximant (IPA upsilon)?
>
>I would think so. Your description certainly warrants it.
I think so also.

When we lived in south Wales, we used to have foreign language assistants
lodge with us.  I noticed that the southern German & Austrians who stayed
with us used this sound for German {w} which, all the text books tells, is
[v].  They looked on that as a northernism.

The effect was that their /v/ tended to sound like [w] to our ears, and
their /w/ like [v] - the sound being in both cases as James says "between
the two".  The austrian girl we had staying with us for two years had great
difficulty in making 'valley' and 'welly' (Wellington boot) sound different
- which occasionally led to some amusing misunderstandings  :)

My Iranian colleague at work pronounces English /v/ and /w/ the same way
also as a labiodental approximant.

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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