A request for clarification Rob Zook Tue, 04 Nov 1997 09:48:20 -0600 Marketa, I have put together a list of all the linguistic quandries we have discussed on and off the list in the past couple of weeks. Could you pass this on to your father please? Everyone, If I have forgotten anything please add it to the list, so we can get it along to Marketa's father while he's visiting her. Rob Z. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Zvelebil, In the course of our trying to expand on your and Marketa's work we have found a few ambiguities we're not sure how to resolve: 1) The sounds of some of the vowels seem unclear: a - as in French patte a: ? We need an example of how to pronounce a:. Does it sound like "a" in father or something else? Since none of us have great fluency in french, we also need a better example of /a/ and /e/. Perhaps if we could see how all of these sounds relate to the IPA vowel chart it would help. Or even just a description of each vowels distinctive features. 2) Are a~, o~, e~ phonemes or allophones of /a/, /o/, /e/? If they are allophones, do all the vowels have one? If they are phonemes is there one to correspond to each non-nasal vowel phoneme? 3) Does "kh" in the dictionary refer to a voiceless aspirated velar stop, or a voiced velar fricative stop (i,e. /x/)? 4) We think we know how to pronounce w~, but the example given for w, "white" somtimes has a sound, instead of a as in "wood". Which does refer to? Does the following accurately represent your intentions in the Lexicon? w~ - voiceless bilabial fricative w - voiced bilabial fricative w~l - voiceless co-articulated bilabial and lateral alveolar fricative 5) In regards to /rh/, the lexicon reads: rh - voiced retroflex vibrant, somewhat like American or Irish 'r'. A voiced retroflex vibrant, an American and an Irish all seem like three different sounds to us. Although the american and the Irish sound very similar. If /rh/ does indeed act as a voiced retroflex vibrant, how does one say a vibrant? Or is one of those three sounds the phoneme and the other two allophones? 6) Do the tense-aspect infixes given in the Grammar constitute the entire tense-aspect system? 7) Whether the conceived role of <'> is anything like this: /'/ -> [']/V_ [0](zero)/C[+syllabic]_;_C[+syllabic] [^](VERY short)/elsewhere The "phoneme" represented by <'> is manifest as a glottal stop when it follows a vowel; as null when it follows or precedes a syllabic consonant; and as a very short mid-central vowel in any other environment. 8) It does not seem clear how to stress, and divide words into syllables. Which makes it hard to determine which sets of consonents in the middle of a word actually constitute a consonent cluster. For example: ari-vne, or ariv-ne? arie'-mnu or ari'-m-nu? do-pra or dop-ra? d'-w~ln-aar or d'-w~l-naar? est-shak? kat-ra? kh'-rak-la'-th or kh'-ra-kla'-th? kh'spark-a'th or kh'-spar-ka'-th? kh'-askp-eth-ey-a'-th or kh'ask-peth-ey-a'-th? kh'ask-eir-al-(a-tha/ath-a) or kh'as-keir-al-(a-tha/ath-a)? kho-stri or khos-tri? k'-tler-ie or k'-tle-rie? k'-tmn(er-i/e-ri) or k'tm-n(er-i/e-ri)? k'wa-wje or k'waw-je? lak-tra? lesh-riq or le-shriq? lirt'-k or lir-t'-k? na'-tha'-th-hya or na'-tha'-thhya? net'no'kwa? ni-droi' or nid-roi'? ri'-a-gra or ri'ag-ra? r'-mna-sek? t'-amt-ar'-am or t'-am-tar'-am? tot-tsu'-k'-kai? wh'-ltri or wh'-l-tri? Sincerely, The members of the vulcan-linguistics mailing list