Re: IPA (Was: Re: Hello, I'm new too)

> > Huh?  I've always thought that the curly-tailed [z] was the correct IPA
> > symbol for the Spanish sound.  It's a voiced palatal fricative, just
> > barely different from the voiced palatal approximant [j].  I care because
> > my conlang has a phonemic difference between them!  Any more info on this?
>
> The curly-tail-c (unvoiced) and curly-tail-z (voiced) are the Polish and
> Mandarin sounds, which are marked by the tongue position: the tip is
> behind the lower teeth.
More questions of phonetics.  When I pronounce English <y>, I have the tip
of my tongue behind my lower teeth and the body of my tongue touching the
alveolar ridge on the sides, with space along the palate.  This is [j]
by all descriptions.  When I pronounce Yivríndil <yy> I have the tip and
sides of my tongue in the same place, only the body of the tongue is
closer to the palate and produces audible friction.  Is this [j\]
(curly-tail [j])?


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_