Re: Morphems

On 22 June, David Peterson wrote:

<snip>

>In Arabic, there's a dental click
>that means "no".
    Same sound with the same meaning in Israeli
Hebrew. But you can't (at least I've never seen it)
quote somebody as having said it! I wouldn't  even
know how to write it using the Hebrew alphabet!
    (I don't know whether one can write/cite the sound
in Arabic.)
    However, in English, more or less the same sound
is used for expressing pity or mild disapproval and is usually
written "tsk" (sometimes even pronounced [tIsk] ).
In English, a person  _can_  be quoted, even in print,
as having clicked.
    Question:
    Does this make the English paralinguistic click less
"para" and more "linguistic" than in langs where one may
express the sound but not directly quote someone else as having
said it?
    And what status does the English "tsk", pronounced [tIsk],
have? Is it also paralinguistic?


Dan Sulani
--------------------------------------------------------------------
likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.

Reply