Re: Russians and their palates was Re: [CONLANG] Palatalized uvular stop

Amanda Babcock scripsit:

> It's simple.  In a word like "ob#jasnit'", where # is the hard sign
> (which means "don't palatalize this") and ' is the soft sign (which means
> "palatalize this"), the /b/ is held - swallowed almost - and the breath
> stream stops completely.  It's almost a pause.  Then the word starts
> back up with the /j/.
You're meeting an objection which wasn't made.  Outo and Trebor are skeptical
about the distinction between C'ja and Cja, as in p'at' (five) vs.
p'janyj (drunk).  The latter is rare (are there even minimal pairs)
and often merges with the former, but the distinction does exist.

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