tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 26 23:47:01 2003
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RE: the glottal stop
ja' "Dr. Jeremy DM Cowan" <[email protected]>:
>In English and Klingon (and every language I've ever studied), no words
>exist that begin with a "pure" vowel sound.
Hawaiian is supposed to have minimal pairs differing only by the presence
or absence of a glottal stop at the beginning of the word. The greeting
"aloha" doesn't have one.
ja'pu' "David Hand" <[email protected]>
>In English, to indicate that there is no glottal stop preceding a word
>that begins with a vowel, we use an "h". Consider "hate" and "ate".
>They have the same sounds but for the glottal stop that begins the
>latter.
ja' "Dr. Jeremy DM Cowan" <[email protected]>:
>I disagree with this. I'm no trained linguist, but I hear the air
>flowing for the 'h' before the voicing of the vowel. I get the
>impression that a "pure" vowel begins voicing right away, but starts
>with an open throat. An initial vowel in English is begun with the
>throat closed and a small explosion into the voicing of the vowel.
How about the words "honor" and "heir"? I believe that's the kind of thing
David was talking about. I was taught in school that a carefully pedantic
pronunciation of those words *does* have a pure vowel at the beginning,
sans explosion.
-- ghunchu'wI'