Re: OT: Slightly OT: French as a second language
| From: | Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, November 21, 2001, 4:35 |
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On Tue, 20 Nov 2001 17:37:49 -0800 Aquamarine Demon
<aquamarine_demon@...> writes:
> I've only heard one person.... :( But I like it.. he speaks the
> Israeli
> one... isn't it called Sephardic? Or something?
> The Aquamarine Demon
-
It's not really Sephardic (although "Sephardic" itself only refers to a
category of related accents, and not to one specific pronounciation, just
as "Ashkenazic" does) - Israeli is sort of pidgin-esque in that it takes
the common denominators of Ashkenazic and Sephardic accents, and avoids
using pronounciations that are distinctive or 'hard' for members of the
other accent-groups. That's why it has no emphatics or pharyngeals
(because Ashkenazim can't pronounce them) and only around 6 vowel
distinctions instead of around 10 (because Sephardim can't pronounce
them).
-Stephen (Steg)
"bunnies, bunnies it must be bunnies!"
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