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Re: The Dialects of Tech

From:Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...>
Date:Thursday, May 20, 1999, 10:08
Danny Wier wrote:

>Kristian Jensen wrote:
-----<snip>-----
> >>Incidentally, some of the Boreanesian languages also developed
tones
>>in what appears to be a similar way to the Toqians. In this case, >>the loss of the distinction between stiff and slack phonation in >>syllable final consonants. Words whose cognates in standard >>Boreanesian ends in a stiff phonation is pronounce in some
dialects
>>with a falling tone, while those with cognates in standard >>Boreanesian ending in a slack phonation is pronounced with a high >>tone. > >Question -- how do previous stiff/slack phonation relate to modern >tones?
Ummm... Didn't I just describe that? Falling tone from stiff, and high tone from slack.
>I have low tone for formerly glottalized stops/affricates and high >tone for aspirated. Mid tone for the plain stops. This produces a >simpler consonant inventory; here I give the phonemes (there may be
a
>few more): > >lab den alv ret lat pal vel v+l uvu pha glo >p t ts t` tL tS k kw q ? (fortis mutation) >b d dz d` dl dZ g gw G (lenis mutation) >f T s s` L S x xw X H h (spirant mutation) >m n n_ n` nl n~ N Nw N` (nasal mutation) > r (r`) > l (l`) (l~) >w j > >Notes: >Qot. /`/ (Arabic _`ayn_) merges with /j/. >There is no lenition of nasals (so no nasalized fricatives). >The fricatives have voiced allophones; the nasals have voiceless >allophones, though less frequently. > >A lot more manageable compared to the couple hundred consonants of
the
>main dialects, huh...
This is probably the dialect that most foriegners are taught in Techia, since it would be a lot more easier for them to learn. The other dialects would just become a nightmare - both for the learner and for the teacher trying to teach the linguistically inadept. 8-) -kristian-