Fw: Fw: [Lexicog] new nosey word

[Louanna Furbee]

>Jimm, Think of the way we say "butter" - the second syllable has
>only the "r" for a syllable center - the function a vowel would
>usually have.  "Little" works the same way, with the "l" as the
>syllable center.  Louanna



>----- Original Message -----
>From: "LONSKY,JIRI" <jlonsky at ufl.edu>
>To: "Jimm GoodTracks" <goodtracks at gbronline.com>
>Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 3:15 AM
>Subject: Re: Fw: [Lexicog] new nosey word
>
>
>Yes, it is true. Some of our consonants are so called
>"syllable-forming", r, l, m; practically their ability to stand in
>for a wovel is related to the possibility to hold a length (like
>rrrrrrr and llll, while in other consonants this is not possible
>(b, p, k, t etc.) These then cannot be syllable forming.
>I had an interesting conversation a while ago with a Czech man in
>New mexico who brought to my attention close linguistic ties
>between the Basque language and Czech. Amazing.
>Hope you are well,
>Jiri
>
>On Sat Apr 10 20:37:58 EDT 2004, Jimm GoodTracks
><goodtracks at gbronline.com> wrote:
>
>>  Jiri!
>>  Is this true that Czech has words without vowels??  If so, how do
>>  they
>>  pronounce the words??
>>  Jimm
>>
>>  ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jan Ullrich" <jfu at centrum.cz>
>>  To: <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
>>  Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 4:09 AM
>>  Subject: RE: [Lexicog] new nosey word
>>  Fritz
>>
>>  In Czech, my native language, probably the longest word without
>>  vowels is
>>  ?scvrnkls?. It means something like ?you pushed it away with you
>>  finger?.
>>  I think most of the Czech vowel-less words usually have about
>>  three to five
>>  consonants, but quite frequently they can be combined into
>>  sentences,
>>  similar to the famous Czech tongue twister:
>>
>>  Strc prst skrz krk. (Stick your finger through your throat.)
>>
>>  In such Czech words it is indeed ?r? and ?l? that are
>>  phonetically
>>  vowel-like.
>>  Jan Ullrich
>>  Lakota Language Revitalization Project
>>  Indiana University, Bloomington
>>  www.lakotalanguage.org
>>


--
Prof. N. Louanna Furbee
Department of Anthropology
107 Swallow Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO  65211 USA
Telephones: 573/882-9408 (office)
	   573/882-4731 (department)
	   573/446-0932 (home)
	   573/884-5450 (fax)
E-mail:  FurbeeL at missouri.edu