Re: Chevraqis: a sketch

On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 10, 2000 at 01:25:34PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > I had /k/ and /q/ originally, with one being harsher than the other, then
> > ditched it.  I'm still messing around with phonemes.  :-/  What I really
> > need is a tape cassette with a random assortment of non-English sounds so
> > I can pick and choose.
> [snip]
>
> I found the following link helpful in this respect:
>
> http://www.unil.ch/ling/phonetique/api-eng.html
Thanks!  I'll go through that when I'm not at work and can turn up the
speakers.  ;-)  (I use an apt-mate's computer for internet, except its
power supply is dying and we're getting it fixed this weekend...so I
ought to be able to hear all the .au files soon.)  I found a similar site
in French, which fortunately was figure-outable, but I confess it's
easier for me to work from English.

> One method I've found useful when coming up with sounds is to analyse the
> various parameters: aspiration, nasality, voiced/unvoiced, frication,
> etc., and then apply various combinations of these to the basic sounds
> like labials, dentals, velars, palatals, what-have-you.
I still can't do the palatals, though aspiration and nasality doesn't
bother me too much.  <rueful look>

> Of course, you might find that a lot of these combinations get your mouth
> in a knot (not just your tongue), but hey, you might find something
> interesting that way... It does take a bit of practice to get out of the
> way you're used to pronouncing things, but once you somewhat break out of
> the mold, you might find yourself pronouncing things you never thought you
> could pronounce. :-)
Absolutely.  :-)  The best thing my semester of German did for me was
*finally* teach me to approximate a rolled r, which 5 years of French
failed at (mainly because my last 3 years of French were from a teacher
with an American accent so strong even *I* could hear it, especially with
two native French speakers in the class, one from Paris!).  And then
Korean "r" is something else entirely; I wish I knew the IPA symbol for
it, but it's almost an l, and yet not quite.

YHL