Dueling impressions

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 9, 2004, at 1:47 PM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Dueling impressions
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Wilson says:
> I'd expect that the whole /b d g/ series would be affected. It's just
> that implosive b rolls most trippingly from the tongue, if implosives
> are not native to your speech.
>  <<<<<
>
> It's not just that. The lips are at the front of the vocal tract. The
> air
> space behind them is therefore the largest of all the places of
> articulation. If you're dropping your jaw for an open vowel while
> articulating a stop, the bilabial stop is going to produce the greatest
> difference in air pressure versus the atmosphere. This is at least
> part of
> why implosive [b] is the most common implosive in the world's
> languages than
> any other implosive, and implosive [g] is the least common.
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
> [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>

Thank you. That's interesting to know. It helps to explain why I can't
recall ever having heard implosive /d g/. The articulatory difference
is probably insufficient to grab my attention the way implosive /b/
does. There, the "wrongness" factor is much more obvious.

-Wilson Gray