tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Feb 07 07:15:31 1998

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Re: introduction



ghItlh Doneq:

>For some reason, I always make an "r" in the back of my mouth. I'm
>not a linguist, but I believe I do it by trilling my... erm... wha't
>it called... well, you know, that hanging blob at the back of the
>mouth you always see in cartoons when sombody's yelling.

Uvula.

> I trill that
>against the back of my tongue, I think. I think this is the wrong "r"
>pronounciation Chakotay mentioned.

It's like gargling. Is that the growling \rr\ you refer to?

> I have tried once to trill with
>my tongue to make an "r" sound, but I somehow couldn't. And neither
>can most people I know (at least they don't). And still it *sounds*
>like a trilling "r".

I could not trill an \r\ until I began working in a predominantly
Spanish-speaking environment. It wasn't long until I heard it enough to be
able to copy it.

>But from this "wrong" "r", it isn't difficult to go to a "gh" at all.

So long as we remember that <gh> doesn't use the uvula. <q> does. <Q> does.
<H> and <gh> don't. (And <r> doesn't, of course.>

Qermaq




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