Re: Just a Little Taste of Judean (Part 2)

Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> wrote:
[snip]
> It's a Hebrew thing called _beged-kefet_, which has parallels in other
> languages, like Spanish.
> Certain consonants become fricatives in certain environments (usually
> intervocalically), like in the Spanish word _ciudad_, which is pronounced
> more like [siuDaD] than [siudad].
>
> The Judean version affects the consonants b, c, d, g, p, t, which have
> 'hard' and 'soft' forms:
> B - [b] [B]
> C - [k] [x]
> D - [d] [z]
> G - [g] [G]
> P - [p] [P]
> T - [t] [s]
>
> When ending a syllable, or after a long vowel, the consonant becomes a
> fricative.  Beginning a syllable after a consonant, or after a short
> vowel with another vowel afterwards, it's a stop.
You mean (say) /aba/ = [aba] but /a:ba/ = [a:Ba]? Why's that?
Could it be that the long vowel is a product of a short vowel
plus a fricative, maybe /h/ or something of the sort, that
when dropped caused a compensatory lengthening? Like this:

/ahba/ > /a:Ba/, the fricative feature of /h/ spreading to /b/.

Well, that's a castle in the air. :)

Anyway, are [B, x, z, G, P, s] possible between short vowels?
(for example, /aBa/, /axa/, etc.)


--Pablo Flores

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 The Universe is not user friendly.
                                     Kelvin Throop