Re: New (Well, Revamped) Language: TIEG'EW / GABWE

Eric Christopherson


> On Fri, Nov 10, 2000 at 02:32:27PM -0500, Carlos Thompson wrote:
> > Well, the epenthetic vowel could be a lax vowel /@ I U/ close
> > to next vowel.  It could also be close to the point of
articulation
> > of the consonants: labial and velar would bring /U/, coronal,
> > uvular and faringeals would bring /@/, palatals would bring
> > /I/... or something like that.  This way they become more
> > systematic.
>
> I'm confused as to how velar consonants would make it /U/ but
> uvular and pharyngeals would make it /@/, since uvular and
> pharyngeal are further back than velar. Now that I think of that,
> coronal (dental/alveolar/retroflex, right?) is further forward than
> palatals, so why would that cause the vowel to be central?
Well, I worked a little from intuition, but we can try to explain it a
little.  [u] could be thought as the vocalic version of [w]:
labiovelar approximant, and this is not hard to see: an unrounded [u]:
[M] (upside down m) is closer to the velar approximant [M\] (upside
down m with long tail), this is because [u] has a velar component.
The lax version of [u]: [U] has that velar component as well.

Well, another experiment is: begin form the voiced stop of the desired
point of articulation: [b], [d], [c_v], [g], [q_v] ..., allow the air
stream to increase untill you get a fricative: [B], [D] or [z], [j\],
[G], [R]..., then rellax the mount untill it becames fricativeless:
approximants: ?, [r\], [j], [M\], ?, and keep relaxing till they
become vowels.  Then try to figure out wich is the closer allowed
vowel in your system.

For me it becomes /u/ from both labial and velar articulations and /@/
from the dental and /V/ from the uvular articulations.

-- Carlos Th