tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 27 16:41:08 2001
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RE: Pronunciation [was RE: K'Zhen Zu-Merz]
ja' qe'San:
>...now sound it yourself very slowly and you'll feel as well as
>hear the vowel sound change before getting to the {w} position. That is
>all that is needed to classify the sound as a diphthong.
I do not share your threshhold of diphthong eligibility. The vowel sound
often changes before getting to an {l} position, or to an {r} position, or
even to a {q} or {b} position. That's just an accident of mouth movement,
and isn't reflected in the phonetic representation of the sound.
The mouth position for {w} is very close to the mouth position for {u}, so
there's an extreme tendency for vowels to shift toward {u} preceding a {w}.
That doesn't mean that a {w} *makes* the {u} sound. Ditto for {y} and {I}.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh