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Re: another (phonolgy) question

From:dunn patrick w <tb0pwd1@...>
Date:Friday, April 2, 1999, 0:40
On Thu, 1 Apr 1999, J. Barefoot wrote:

> >I think cherokee (or is it Cheyanne?) has voiceless vowels. So does my > >Telu'at'a. > > > What does an unvoiced vowel sound like? And I actually meant breathy > voiced. On a broader level, are there any langugaes that make > distinctions in the vowels that aren't made in the consonants, like > breathy-aspirated/plain or voiced/voiceless?
I actually am not sure if they're technically "unvoiced" (although I've heard them described that way) or actually breathy-voiced. To produce one, simply begin making the vowel sound and switch off voicing. The sound that comes out sounds a lot like a stage whisper, and is the sound of the unvoiced vowels in Telu'at'a (and of the /l/ too). --Patrick