<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div>What I would share is that I've encountered many students of Tlingit and Dena'ina over the years who pronounce the orthographys' d as a voiced stop, not only because it's spelled like the English voiced stop, but many guidebooks for learners state explicitly that these sounds are "the same" in English as they are in Tlingit and in Dena'ina as they are in English. </div><div>This is one of my pet peeves. Admittedly, it doesn't lead the learners mistakenly to create a different word, and English-speaking learners of Athabascan and Tlingit will have pronunciation difficulties, but I cannot agree with steering them in the wrong direction by design.</div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt">When I talk to learners about the consonant
system of Tlingit, for example, I identify seven consonants that may be pronounced consistently the same in English and in Tlingit, three in which certain English allophones may match with Tlingit phones, and 32 in which English has no exact match at all.<br><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> James Crippen <jcrippen@GMAIL.COM><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> ATHAPBASCKAN-L@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wed, February 17, 2010 2:38:43 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> "Voiced obstruent" mistakes<br></font><br>
We all recognize that the symbols <d>, <g> and the like which<br>conventionally represent voiced obstruents, e.g. in the IPA, are<br>instead used in Athabaskanist literature to represent voiceless<br>unaspirated obstruents. They're used this way in Athabaskan<br>orthographies as well. This is something we quickly take for granted<br>after the first few exposures, but we still constantly have to remind<br>outsiders about it.<br><br>I'm well aware that this convention has tripped up linguists who are<br>not well-read in our literature and don't consult any Athabaskanists,<br>but I don't have any examples at hand. Do any other list members have<br>some good examples of gratutitous assumptions about the voiced status<br>of Athabaskan obstruents? Things that would make any of us sigh and<br>shake our heads?<br><br>Gunalchéesh (IPA /kunaɬtʃʰíːʃ/) "thanks",<br>James<br><br>(As usual I'm lumping Eyak and Tlingit into "Athabaskan"
for<br>convenience despite inaccuracy.)<br></div></div><div style="position:fixed"></div>
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