Re: Danish: tonal suffices?

--- Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> wrote:

> I wish i could remember it, but i learned once that of all the "home
> remedy" style medicines that are mentioned in the Talmud, later Jewish
> legal authorities prohibited the use of all of them (because, depending
> on your viewpoint, we don't understand how they work or people back then
> weren't as knowledgeable in medicine as we are now) except for the "cure
> for a bone stuck in your throat".
>
> This remedy involves placing a bone of the same animal on your head, and
> saying a certain sentence.
> So, why is this the only remedy allowed to be used?
> Because it works!
>
> 1. Placing the bone on your head necesitates you to balance it, tilting
> your head back and making it easier for the bone to come back up.
> 2. The sentence given consists almost entirely of the pharyngeal
> consonants _hhet_ (voiceless fricative) and _`ayin_ (voiced fricative),
> which are made by the same muscles used in regurgitation!
>
> So you're actually opening up your esophogus and vomitting out the bone.
>
> If only i could remember how the sentence went....it probably sounds much
> cooler that i am able to pronounce both of the pharyngeals now.
>
> Of course, it only works if you can pronounce the consonants
> properly....and the heimlich probably is more certain of working.
A Techian would do something similar to that.  He would rare back and loudly
utter "Grain, Grain, Grain!!"

Which sounds uninteresting until you realize what the Tech word for 'grain' is
/?-&nd'/.  The /?-/ (barred glottal stop) is a *voiceless pharyngeal/epiglottal
affricate*.  In other words, a pretty sharp cough, or even a slight 'hawking'
sound.  (I mentioned it on this list some months ago.)

I discovered this phoneme in at least one real-world language in the North
Caucasian family.

DaW.   ¶¦¬þ


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