Re: L3 Numbers

Scotto Hlad wrote:
>
>Since you mentioned cinquinta I have a question about writing nasalized
>vowels in XSAMPA.
>
>If one says cinquinta, the first n goes nasal automatically due to the /k/
>that follows it. Do I render it therefore as [tsi~kwinta] or [tsinkwinta]?
>The same applies to cinqui: [tsinkwi] or [tsi~kwi]?
I have to say: it depends :-)))) The vowel preceding a nasal is often
nasalized to some degree; perhaps esp. if the nasal is [N]-- the lowering
velum allows a bit more air to exit thru the nose than a [n] or [m]. This
would be "sub-phonemic" and would only be indicated in a fairly close
phonetic rendering-- like "sinker" ['sI~Nk@r]. The nasal doesn't totally
vanish-- as it does in French and IIRC Portuguese.

Minor question-- is the written "n" in your cinqui, cinquinta ever
pronounced as [N] (as might be expected) or does it stay [n] (odd but not
impossible). (But if it totally vanishes, leaving behind only the nasalized
V, the spelling is sort of irrelevant.)  If you do intend for it to totally
vanish, then the correct phonetic renderings would be [tsi~kwi] and
[tsi~kwinta]. Then the written "n" is there only to mark nasalization, not
pronunciation (like French I think).

That brings up another question-- is the i in -inta also nasalized? or does
it only happen before nasal+[k, kw]? (probably nasal+g too, if you have
that)????

Once long ago, just for fun and games, I created a mini Romconlang, with
really weird spelling and pronunciation (my revenge on French).  If there
was a nasal anywhere in the word, everything was nasalized. If there was an
h, everything following it was dropped :-)) So 100 was cehaimt, pronounced
[sE~]

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