Re: THEORY: Vibrant/tremulant?

On 15.7.2007 Roger Mills wrote:
 >
 > Hmmm, perhaps it's a _voiceless_ r-trill, at least I seem
 > able to do it -- with conscious effort-- without the tip
 > touching the palate (except occasionally :-( though it's
 > always _almost_ touching...) There's also a lot of h-like
 > or even x- or X- like friction too-- maybe you could work
 > it in as a cluster??? I wonder if it might be something
 > like Dutch initial gr- [X+vl. r]

Having learnt to speak Icelandic _in situ_ I'm quite
familiar with [r_0], and I think that is it, but I'm a bit
confused by your x/X friction. There certainly isn't any
such in the [r_0] I've learnt. OTOH there *is* quite some
alveolar s-like friction in it which is absent in a voiced
[r] or [r\]. FWIW to my naked ear a voiceless [r\_0] is
indistinguishable from [S]. I'm reminded of Czech r-haczek,
which is described as a fricative alveolar trill, fits my
[r_0] spot on except that the latter is voiceless. IIRC I've
seen the modern Czech sound described as voiceless, though.

/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    a shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot
                                 (Max Weinreich)

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