Inquiry: Khmer Vowels (fwd)

[Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2000 16:47:25 -1000
From: Christopher Court <court at hawaii.edu>
To: Adelwisa A Weller <alagawel at umich.edu>
Cc: cotseal2000 at umich.edu
Subject: Re: Inquiry: Khmer Vowels (fwd)

dear all

the facts about Khmer vowels are as i have stated them.  the registers
that people talk about in Khmer are gone: see the phonological  writings
of
Martini, Richard Noss and Franklin Huffman. as if to keep the concept of
register alive, there has
arisen in Phnom Penh colloquial etc. an effect whereby prevocalic /r/ is
turned into /H/ (voiced "h"), with a breathy effect going right through
the syllable and a low rising-falling pitch. as for whether this
colloquial variety is a "tone language", i myself consider it a
rudimentary tone language, with voice quality differences inseparable from
the tones--just as in Burmese (according to the literature), and three of
the tones in Vietnamese: it all depends which feature you consider more
important in the contrast--normal voice vs. breathy voice, or unmarked
voice  vs. breathy voice. but make no mistake about it: the
"registers" Eugenie Henderson talked about in her excellent phonetic of
Khmer are only a feature of artificial classroom speech. i have heard a
person affecting the "sepulchral" "register" for my benefit, and it
sounded like a run-of-the-mill "breathy" voice, and i'm sure that is what
Henderson heard, but she generalized this artifical pronunciation to the
pronunciation of Khmer in general. i don't have her paper in front of me,
but i wouldn't be surprised if her informant was of the older generation,
and/or a teacher, and/or a monk. i have no doubt that the
'sepulchral" register in (syllables with originally voiced initial
consonants) that  she talks about was a feature of Khmer
until relatively times, and there may some dialects that still have it in
natural speech.  reports of prevocalic /r/ changing in the way i have
indicated go at least back to dick noss in the 1960's.

christopher court