Re: vowel harmony

On Mon, 5 Dec 2005 19:58:36 -0000, caotope <johnvertical@...> wrote:

>--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Tom Chappell wrote:
> [snip]
>> On pp. 291-295, section 10.9 "Nasal Vocoid Articulation", Laver says
>> there are two degrees of nasality of vocoids in the Applecross
>> dialect of Scottish Gaelic.  But his best evidence is in Palantla
>> Chinantec an Otomanguean Mesoamerican language -- he quotes a
>> reference whith a minimal triplet, ?e 'leach', ?e~ 'count', ?e~~
>> 'chase', all identical in tone.  He also mentions Breton and Bengali
>> as well.
>
>Do you know what're the articulatory phonetics in play at here? Is it
>just about the degree of lowering of the velum or something more devious?
Laver says:
"... there is evidence from combined acoustic and cineradiographic research
that slight and heavy nasality is correlated with velic adjustments
producing different cross-sectional areas of the velopharyngeal opening
into the nasal cavity.  Bjork (1961) showed that slight nasality correlated
with a cross-sectional area of about 60 square millimeters, compared with
areas of some 250 square millimeters for heavy nasality."

Bjork (1961) is L. Bjork, (note that should be o-umlaut), 'Velopharyngeal
function in connected speech. Studies using tomography and cineradiography
synchronized with speech spectrography.' Acta Radiologica (Stockholm),
supplement no. 202.

---

Tom H.C. in MI