Re: Unilang: the Phonology

David Peterson wrote:

> In a message dated 4/25/01 12:00:22 PM, and_yo@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>
> << What is a "hummed" nasal? >>
>
>     How to explain...  Well, take the sound [m], and just hold it, hum it.
> If you'll notice, you can do this with all nasals: mmmmmmmm, nnnnnnnnnnnn,
> NNNNNNNNN...  So, in Swahili (where almost every singular form begins with a
> hummed nasal), you have a word [Ngeni] (I believe), where you start with your
> tongue in the [N] position, hum it and go straight into the word.  This exact
> one occurs in the word "hunger".  When you get to the "ng" part, try holding
> the sound; I think you'll see what happens.
These guys are called "syllabic" nasals, because they form the nucleus of a
syllable: [N.ge.ni].

Matt.

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