Re: another silly phonology question

H.S.Teoh -- not silly -- wrote:
Ditto for Malay, which
>also has [h] but no other glottals that I'm aware of (unless what I think
>is a velar/uvular fricative is actually a glottal? -- i.e., the [x] or [X]
>sound in {akhir}).>
        In Indonesia, it's pretty clearly a velar; maybe because of their
exposure to Dutch (and older folks who still remember).  But I don't know
what it might have been in the Arabic original.   All the sounds you mention
(except s) are borrowed, mostly from Arabic.  In Malaysia, /sh/ possibly
from English too.

>On that note, the /kh/ in Malay seems like an asymmetric sound -- there is
>no voiced version of it, unlike /s/ and /z/. The /sy/ or /sh/ (pronounced
>either [S] or [C]) also seems rather odd, since there are no other
>palatals in Malay (that I'm aware of).