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Re: An arabo-romance conlang?

From:Eric Christopherson <raccoon@...>
Date:Friday, February 2, 2001, 5:33
On Thu, Feb 01, 2001 at 05:18:10PM -0800, J Matthew Pearson wrote:
> Eric Christopherson wrote: > > > On Thu, Feb 01, 2001 at 01:17:12PM -0500, Vasiliy Chernov wrote: > > > In Semitic langs themselves, pharyngeals are often a result of wealening > > > the uvulars (in fact, all well attested languages except Arabic had lost > > > their uvulars this way). > > > > Pharyngeals are *weakened* uvulars? The world is a very strange place, > > seeing as how I can produce uvulars just fine but pharyngeals give me > > trouble... > > Pharyngeals are *not* weakened uvulars, at least not literally. Uvulars are made > with constriction at the back of the throat. Pharyngeals are made with > constriction at the pharynx, which likes about halfway down the throat from the > uvula to the glottis.
Well yes, I'm aware (intellectually at least) of what they are; it's just that I found Vasiliy's claim that they resulted from a weakening of uvular sounds a bit hard to swallow. (But if I gag while trying to swallow it, I may be able to produce a pharyngeal! :) ) -- Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo