Re: Unilang: the Phonology

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.
    Anyway, this is different from, say, Russian, where you get words
starting with [mn] and neither of them are hummed; you just kind of pronounce
them.

-David

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