Re: Aspirate clusters (was: Hellenish oddities)

On Sun, Nov 26, 2000 at 07:13:56PM +0100, BP Jonsson wrote:
> At 08:45 2000-11-25 -0800, SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY wrote:
>
> >The other option that nobody is mentioning is the possibility that there
> >was an epenthetic vowel inserted between them. This is not an uncommon way
> >to do things in American Indian languages -- I've heard it in Chickasaw,
> >Pima, and been told about it in Salishan languages. It is not restricted
> >to aspiration, but is used anytime a cluster is difficult to pronounce.
>
> An ephenthetic voiceless schwa [@_0] is indeed the only way I can manage
> two aspirated plosives in succession, so that [p^ht^h] is effectively
> [p@_0t^h],
[snip]

Hmm, I can pronounce [p<h>t<h>] with both consonants aspirated by
lenghening [t<h>]. But yeah, I notice that there might be a voiceless
vowel between the two.

Actually, now that I think about it... is it actually possible to
pronounce [pt] as a labio-alveolar? i.e., the stop actually has both
the lips shut and the tongue behind the alveolar ridge -- as if you're
pronouncing [p] and [t] at the same time -- and both are released
simultaneously? I'm trying it myself, and I *think* it's possible to
pronounce [p<h>t<h>] as [(pt)<h>] (if that makes sense). I can actually
get a sound which is simultaneously an aspirated labial and an aspirated
alveolar.

Hmm, I think this is going into my next conlang's phonetic vocabulary :-)


T

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