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

Hi All

Michael Everson wrote:

>The frication is bilabial. Nasality is an added 
>feature due to the simultaneous egress of air 
>through the nostrils.

yes, I know what nasality is; the point is that according to the phoneticians
you can't have simultaneous bilabial frication if there is air going
through the nose because there isn't enough airflow in the mouth to
generate the frication.

>For most speakers the -mh- in "sÈimhi™" isn't 
>nasalized however, and it's labio-dental, not 
>bilabial.

With respect to the nasalization -- it sure sounds nasalized to me. (But that's
why I want to know if it has been instrumentally 
tested -- because it might be an acoustic 
illusion caused by the nasal vowel (i.e. the 
slight nasality of the vowel in <mhi/>  might 
make the [v] sound nasal). I'm listening to a
tape of a native connacht speaker at this very moment where you can here this
quite clearly. And this seems to be true whether 
the <mh> is caused by synchronic lenition or is 
medial/final and thus underlying.

As for whether <mh> is [v] or bilabial, that depends upon whether it is broad
or slender. The broad version is of course a bilabial approximate. I've
seen native speakers pronounce the slender version as either [v] (usually
dubliners) or as a bilabial fricative [Beta]. 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.

Andrew
--
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

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