tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat May 18 08:31:04 1996
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Re: Phonology once again (was: Re: qaSovlu' jIneH)
[email protected] writes:
> Well, you are right there, my father is Liverpudlian <sp?>, and I was
> disscribing the way it is pronounced in parts of the north of Britain,
> trying to show that the word "glottal" contains two glottal-stops. I am not,
> and have never been an American, so I don't know how you would pronounce it,
> but I do know that the word itself contains the glottal-stops that show you
> how a glottal-stop would be pronounced in a different situation.
No, the *word* doesn't contain any glottal stops. The word contains two 't's
and an 'l'. The fact that it is pronounced with glottal stops in some
cases doesn't give those stops independent existence within the word.
_TKD_ was aimed at a predominantly US audience, and so the example would have
been useless (unless Okrand wrote "... as pronounced by Ringo Starr",
perhaps. :))
Now, when the word "glottal" is followed by a pause, such as at the end of
a phrase, or when pronounced in isolation, there is a glottal stop terminating
the /l/ sound - even in typical American pronunciation. But as a general rule,
someone not practiced in identifying distinct sounds that aren't phonemes in
his native language will have trouble isolating that sound and making it
independently.
> When I get hit in the stomach by a football, my reaction is to breath out.
> I've tried it.
Okay, so maybe still not a good universal example. :)
-marqoS