Andrew Carnie: Nasal Fricatives

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

From: Andrew Carnie <carnie at linguistlist.org>
To: The Celtic Linguistics List <CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Subject: Re: Michael Everson: Nasal Fricatives

Michael Everson wrote:

>>With respect to the nasalization -- it sure sounds nasalized to me.
>
>Pinch your nose and say sÈimhi™. Unpinch it and 
>say it again. It sounds the same, doesn't it? 
>Some dialects might nasalize one of the vowels, 
>I guess.

it doesn't matter what I do, since I'm not a native speaker. But when I listen
(as objectively, yet not experimentally or instrumentally) to native speakers
talk, I hear a distinction between <bhi> and 
<mhi>. This distinction MAY well be on the vowel 
(and it may not even actually be distinctive -- 
I'd have to test that), but it would be 
interesting if it was as I perceive it: on the 
consonant.  My original question was --- and 
continues to be -- not about nose squeezing, but 
whether anyone had instrumentally tested nasal 
airflow over the consonant (and vowels) in <mh> 
contexts with native speakers.

>>Ni Chasaide writes the latter as [v] with a mid 
>>back unrounded vowel secondary articulation (a 
>>characterization I find baffling), but that's 
>>besides the point.
>
>That isn't a vowel, it's a symbol for glottalization.

surely you mean pharyngealization or 
velarization.  A glottalized v would be ejective, 
which I know its not. I'll double check the 
notation when I go in to work and check the 
article, but I'm pretty sure the IPA defines 
superscript "small gamma" to mean mid back 
unrounded vowel quality on a consonant(as in a 
back l). Unless they changed that without me 
noticing
-- whcih is possible.

--
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

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