thy thigh etc.

[Leo A. Connolly]

Gabor Sandi wrote many sensible things, which I have omitted here.  I
can only make a few remarks, as a Germanist, confirming them.

1. Kuchen [ku.x at n] vs. Kuhchen [ku:ç@n] is not a minimal pair.  I've
said this before, but it bears repeating: there is a difference not only
in the medial fricative, but also in the length of the stressed vowel,
which must be attributed to the presence or absence of a morpheme
boundary.  So it tells us nothing about the status of [x ç], which could
perfect well be one phoneme, except that

2. They have now come to contrast in initial position, at least before
/a/, albeit only in loan words, and only for certain speakers.  I have
noticed this for some time, and am pleased that a Duden author has too.
This strongly favors the analysis as separate phonemes.

3. Separate analysis is also favored by the incontestable fact that
German speakers can, and easily do, hear the difference between them,
which is not typical of allophones.

4. In Rhenish dialects, [ç] has split from [x] and merged with /s^/.
This muddies the waters too.

5. Swiss dialects have only [x], never [ç].  More mud.

More discussion now?  German makes "thy thigh" look easy!

Leo Connolly