Kevin Riley: Nasal Fricatives

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

Delivered-To: CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:14:50 +1100 (AUS Eastern Daylight Time)
From: "Kevin Riley" <klriley at alphalink.com.au>

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
--

Both broad and slender 'mh' are recorded as 
bilabial fricatives by writers on Munster Irish. 
Ni Chasaide is referring to one Donegal [Gaoth 
Dobhair] dialect, and it is not a good idea to 
generalise to all other dialects.  In Munster it 
is the vowel that is nasalised [when it is, and 
it often isn't], not the 'mh', and I suspect that 
is true for all Irish dialects.  When medial, it 
is the preceding vowel which is normally 
nasalised.

Kevin Riley
--
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

CELTLING
Post: celtling at lists.linguistlist.org OR celtling at listserv.linguistlist.org
Archives: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/celtling.html>
Subscribe/Unsubscribe - Go to Archives, then click "Join or leave" link

Website: <http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/celtling>