Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

--- Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
wrote:

>
> 2)The language actually sounds quite nice, nicer
> than I imagined for
> some reason... although I have difficulty getting
> the distinction
> between s, z and x right. It does seem strange
> though that Basque has s,
> S and... I don't know what the X-SAMPA
> representation of <s> is, but
> lacks f. Did basque f --> h (many Spanish speaking
> people around the
> Basque country pronounce f as h in their spanish),
> or has basque never
> had an f?
I don't speak Basque, but I have records from a Basque
singer, Peio Serbielle. If i look at the written text
and listen to the voice, than clearly:
- all written 'z' are pronounced like 's'
- all written 's' are pronounced like 'sh', or S, if
you prefer
- I can hardly hear any difference between the written
s and written x, also pronounced S. The same when they
are preceded by t (ts, tx > tsh).
But one could argue that Basque was not his mother
tongue, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, it's not mine.

I guess Basque is more spoken on yonder side of the
border than in France. It has an official status
there, but not in France.

As for Spanish, I already saw the word "helecho"
(fern) written "felecho". I had a hard time
translating it first time. It might be dialectal
(Asturias ?)

Interesting to note that, while Spanish transforms 'f'
into 'h', Russian transforms 'h' into 'g' (gospital =
[military] hospital). And Ukrainian transforms 'o'
into 'i'. Looks like transforming sounds into other
ones is a major occupation among people.



=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


		
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