Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 00:54:15 -0400

From: Bryan Gick bgick[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SAPIR.LING.YALE.EDU

Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 7 Oct 1997 to 8 Oct 1997



Any of these can be "voiced" (the voicing is phonetically realized by

its effect on the adjacent vowel tone; in fact I think a voiced click

per se is physically impossible), or nasalized (represented with an N

before the click letter), or aspirated (represented with an H after the

click letter, as in the name of the language).



Nope, there are bona fide voiced clicks (even ones with various laryngeal

qualities like laryngealization (creaky) and breathy voicing). The clicks

use a "velaric ingressive" mechanism to produce airflow, meaning that

there's a simultaneous velar tongue closure (as in k or g) and a second

"place of articulation" closure at the lips (in the case of a "kiss"), the

teeth (in the case of "tut-tut"), or the like. While the velar closure is

held throughout, the tongue blade, cheeks or other movable parts pull away

creating a "suction" between the velum and the more front closure. Then,

when the front closure is released (either centrally or laterally), the

air rushing in creates a popping sound. Then, after all this is done, the

velar closure is released and on goes the utterance (whew!). The point of

all this is that, regardless of what's going on in front of the velar

closure, you're still essentially just holding a velar stop. So, depending

on what you're doing with your glottis, you could be making a k, a kh, a

g or an eng, as you see fit.

Ask me tomorrow what this has to do with American dialects.

Bryan



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