prop-con1.htm
by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.). Not for sale. Prepared for students of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR.
UKT: Based on
• Properties of Consonants and Vowels, Kevin Russell, Linguistics Department, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 5V5, CANADA http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/linguistics/russell/138/notes.htm.
• Online Phonetics Course (UNIL), Department of Linguistics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
(This source was downloaded in 2000 or a few years later, and instead of the original links, you can still get to them from: http://www.unil.ch/ling/page30184_fr.html -- UKT: 070823)
UKT: Because the previous file prop-con.htm had become too large, because of my notes I have to split up the original file into two: the regular text and my notes.
UKT notes
largely from Wikipedia for updating my knowledge
• affricate
• allophone {pa.} and {hpa.}
• allophone-problem tenuis
• approximant
• complementary distribution
• consonant
•
From:
• Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affricate_consonant download 070918
Affricate consonants begin as stops (plosives) (most often an alveolar, such as [t] or [d]) but release as a fricative (such as [s] or [z] or occasionally into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel.
English has the affricates [ ʧ ] (U02A7) and [ ʤ ] (U02A4). The stop and the fricative halves of these affricates are at the same POA (place of articulation): the stop is in fact post-alveolar rather than alveolar. We could be explicit about this and underline the [t] and [d] (in IPA, a minus sign under a symbol is a diacritic meaning "pronounced further back in the mouth"), but most phoneticians believe this difference in the POA is so predictable that it doesn't have to be marked.
Some North American authors use č (U010D) in place of [ʧ] (U02A7).
I am surprise how /ʧ/ has been arrived at. It seems, it has been arrived at starting from the first part /t/ (stop) and then moving to the /ʃ/ (fricative) part.
Read more on Affricates in prop-con2.htm
Go back affricate-b
From: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone download 070925
In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. A phone is a sound that has a definite shape as a sound wave, while a phoneme is a basic group of sounds that can distinguish words (i.e. changing one phoneme in a word can produce another word); speakers of a particular language perceive a phoneme as a single distinctive sound in that language. Thus an allophone is a phone considered as a member of one phoneme.
We may distinguish complementary allophones, which are distributed regularly within the idiolect of the same speaker according to phonetic environment, from free variants, which are a matter of personal habit or regional accent.
In the case of complementary allophones, each allophone is used in a specific phonetic context and many times there is some sort of phonological process. Not all phonemes have significantly different allophones, but there are always minor differences in articulation from one piece of speech to the next.
Examples in English: For example, [pʰ] as in <pin> and [p] as in <spin> are allophones for the phoneme /p/ in the English language because they occur in complementary distribution. (UKT: must see allophone-problem in my notes.) English speakers generally treat these as the same sound, but they are different; the first is aspirated and the second is unaspirated (plain). Plain [p] also occurs as the p in <cap> [kʰæp], or the second p in <paper> [pʰeɪ.pɚ]. In contexts where plain p appears in English (e.g. <spin, cap, paper>), speakers may hear it as b since the p in these contexts lacks the burst of air found with the p in <pin>. Besides, we have many different allophones in English, like lack of plosion, nasal plosion, partial devoicing of sonorants, complete devoicing of sonorants, partial devoicing of obstruents, lengthening and shortening vowels, dentalisation and retruction.
#1. Aspiration – strong explosion of breath. In English a voiceless plosive that is p, t or k is aspirated whenever it stands as the only consonant at the beginning of the stressed syllable.
UKT: Because of above, English /p t k/ have the sounds of Burmese-Myanmar {hpa. hta. hka.}
#2. Lack of plosion – In English a plosive (p, t, k, b, d, g) has no plosion when it is followed by another plosive or an affricate inside words or across word boundary.
UKT: Note on #2 of above:
• In Burmese-Myanmar, {pa. ba.} {ta. da.} {ka. ga.} can be followed only by 3 of the 4 allowable medial formers, {ya. ra. wa.}, but not by {ha.}. That is, no {ha.hto:} is allowed for these aksharas.
• In English and in Sanskrit, <p, t, k, b, d, g> they may by followed by a fricative such as <s>. Thus in English, they can have [t] followed by an [ʃ] to produce the sound [ʧ] as realized in <church> /ʧɜːʧ/ -- DJPD16-097.
• Though the sound of [ʧ] is similar to that of {hkya.}, they cannot be the same, because {hkya.} is a medial formed from [kʰ] and [ j ].#3. Nasal plosion – In English a plosive (p, t, k, b, d, g) has nasal plosion when it’s followed by nasal, inside a word or across word boundary.
UKT: My note on #2 applies here also.
#4. Partial devoicing of sonorants – In English a non-vocalic sonorant that is not a vowel (j, w, l, r, m, n, ŋ) is partially devoiced when it follows a voiceless sound within the same way inside a word.
UKT: My note on #2 applies to the case of /m n ŋ/, because these are not medial formers. However, /j w r/ are the sounds of 3 medial formers out of the allowable four.
#5. Complete devoicing of sonorants – In English a non vocalic sonorant is completely devoiced in the position of aspiration, when they follow a voiceless plosives (p, t, k) standing as the first consonant at the beginning of the stressed syllable.
#6. Partial devoicing of obstruents – in English language a voiced obstruent is partially devoiced next to a pause or next to a voiceless sound, inside a word or across it’s boundary.
#7. Dentalisation – in English t, d, n, l are becoming dental before voiced and voiceless English ‘th’ sound.
UKT: My only comment is on the English <th> sound. Though this sound is exactly the same as Burmese-Myanmar {þa.} (generally written in Romabama as {tha.}), there is probably a difference. I have noticed that Americans coming into Myanmar for the first time tend to pronounce {þa.} (a part of my wife's name) as [ð] and only later they change it into [θ]. It should also be noted that Hindi-Devanagari speakers ordinarily pronounce the transcription <th> as {hta.}. Thus, the name of the desert in India subcontinent is /{hta:}/ and not /{þa:}/.
#8. Retruction – in English t, d, n, l are retructed before r.
UKT: Though {ra.} is a medial former in Burmese-Myanmar, Burmese phonotactics does not allow {ta. da. na. la.} to be formed into {ra.ris} conjuncts.
Certain Chinese languages treat these two phones differently, for example in Mandarin, [p] is always written b in pinyin; thus, they are not allophones.
Go back prop-con.htm#allophone-wiki-b
The problem of English allophones: -- by UKT
Many Myanmars are not aware that the English pronunciation [p]
is that of {hpa.} and NOT {pa.}. The Western phoneticians
hold that the sounds of {hpa.} and {pa.} are the allophones
of phoneme /p/. To us the sounds of {pa.} and {hpa.}
are very different from each other, and they are,
in fact, separate phonemes. In the akshara matrix,
the columns for the {wag}-aksharas are:
(the IPA transcriptions for Burmese are tentative)
UKT:
• A tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like [p, t, ts, tʃ, k], with a VOT close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or English p, t, k after s (spy, sty, sky). -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenuis_consonant download 071001
• tenuis n. pl. tenues Linguistics 1. A voiceless stop. 2. A voiceless, unaspirated stop in ancient Greek. [New Latin translation of Greek psilos) from Latin thin; See tenuous ] -- AHTD
• In my note on VOT (in a later section) you will see that the three major phonation types of stops (which I have dubbed c1, c2, and c3 in the following) can be analyzed in terms of their voice onset time:
c1. Tenuis: [t] (15 ms) ; [k] (20-30 ms) -- deemed inaudible
c2. Voiceless: [kʰ] (80-90 ms)
c3. Voiced: [g] (negative value)
(As always, I expect comments from my peers on my observation)
Go back allphone-problem-note-b | allophone-problem-note-b2
UKT: From:
• E. Vajda, Western Washington Univ. http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test2materials/articulatory_phonetics.htm
• Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximant_consonant download 071016UKT: Sibilants form an important subset of fricatives, and I may have to rewrite the two sections together. From the point of view of Burmese-Myanmar, the superset to which the two sections belong is the {a.wag}-consonants, which also has approximants as a subset.
UKT: I have changed the brackets from [...] to /.../ to conform to TIL usage for phonetics. The article uses SAMPA ASCII characters instead of IPA Unicode characters.
Manner of articulation
Now let's look at the ways that moving air can be blocked and modified by various speech organs. There are several methods of modifying air when producing a consonant, and these methods are called manners of articulation. We have already examined where the air is blocked. Now let's look at how the air can be blocked.
#1. Sounds that completely stop the stream of exhaled air are called plosives: /d/, /t/, /b/, /p/, and /g/, /k/, glottal stop. Another word for plosive is stop (nasals are also stops, however, since the air is stopped in the oral cavity during their production).
UKT: During rapid speech, and probably during normal speech, there may not be enough time for an active articulator to change from one phone to another. And a glottal stop may not be realized. This would result in uvular or velar stop. It is probable that a person of one culture (say an Arab) may not articulate the consonants as another person of a different culture (say a Burmese). How people of different cultures pronounce their vowels and consonants would be dictated by their phonotactics. Probably, that's why the innermost stop an Arab can articulate is a uvular, whereas a Burmese can articulate only a velar. And, probably that is why in Burmese we cannot find the [h] following a plosive: we cannot have {ha.hto:} for {ka. ga.} {pa. ba.} and {ta. da.}.
#2. Sound produced by a near complete stoppage of air are called fricatives: /s/, /z/, /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /x/, /ʌ/, /h/, pharyngeals.
#3. Sometimes a plosive and a fricative will occur together as a single, composite sound called an affricate: /ʧ/, /ʦ/, /ʣ/, /ʤ/, /pf/.
UKT: It is possible that Burmese-Myanmar has no affricates such as /ʧ/. What we have are medials which can only be formed with approximants {ya. ra. wa. ha.}. The akshara with the /ʧ/ sound is a medial formed {hka.} and medial former {ya.}.
#4. All other types of continuant are produced by relatively slight constriction of the oral cavity and are called approximants. Approximants are those sounds that do not show the same high degree of constriction as fricatives but are more constricted than are vowels. During the production of an approximant, the air flow is smooth rather than turbulent. There are four types of approximants.
4.1. The glottis is slightly constricted to produce /h/, a glottalic approximant.
UKT: According to the table given on the right, drawn based on the table of IPA consonants given by DJPD16, a glottal approximant cannot be articulated. Since, I have assumed that Burmese-Myanmar {ha.}, because of its medial forming property is an approximant, I have no choice but to put it down as a pharyngeal approximant. (See below the justification for my placement of {ha.} as a pharyngeal approximant in the download from Wikipedia.)
4.2. If slight stricture occurs between the roof of the mouth and the tongue a palatal glide is produced / j /. If the constriction is between the two lips, alabiovelar glide is produced. The glides / j / and /w/ are also called semivowels, since they are close to vowels in degree of blockage.
4.3. If the stricture is in the middle of the mouth, and the air flows out around the sides of the tongue, a lateral is produced. Laterals, or lateral approximants, are the various l-sounds that occur in language. In terms of phonetic features, l-sounds are + lateral, while all other sounds are + central.
4.4. The third type of approximant includes any of the various R-sounds that are not characterized by a flapping or trilling: alveolar and retroflex approximants. This includes the American English r (symbolized in the IPA by /ɹ/, but we will use the symbol [r]).
Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. In the articulation of approximants, articulatory organs produce a narrowing of the vocal tract, but leave enough space for air to flow without much audible turbulence. Approximants are therefore more open than fricatives. This class of sounds includes lateral approximants like [ l ] {la.}, as in <lip>, and approximants like [ j ] {ya.} and [w] {wa.} in <yes> and <well > which correspond closely to vowels and semivowels.
Corresponding vowels:
Palatal approximants correspond to front vowels,
velar approximants to back vowels, and labialized approximants
to rounded vowels. They are typically briefer and
closer than the corresponding vowels.
Approximants vs. fricatives :
When emphasized, approximants may be slightly fricated
(that is, the airstream may become slightly turbulent),
which is reminiscent of fricatives. Examples are
the <y> of English <yes> ! (especially when lengthened)
and the "weak" allophones of Spanish b, d, g,
which are often transcribed as fricatives (often due
perhaps to a lack of dedicated approximant symbols).
However, such frication is generally slight and intermittent,
unlike the strong turbulence of fricative consonants.
This confusion is also common with voiceless approximants, which necessarily have a certain amount of fricative-like noise. For example, the voiceless labialized velar approximant [ʍ] has traditionally been called a fricative. Tibetan has a voiceless lateral approximant, [l̥], and Welsh has a voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ], but the distinction is not always clear from descriptions of these languages.
UKT: Listening online to [ɬ] from various sources, my wife Daw Than Than and I have come to the conclusion that this sound is that of Burmese-Myanmar {lha.}, which is a medial derived from {la.} with the medial former {ha.}. That this sound is present in Welsh has been confirmed by my friend Dr. Maung Di who had worked with a Welsh professor in Britain.
{la.} + {a.that} + {ha.} --> {lha.}
[ l ] + [h] --> [ɬ]I have already stated that the medial formers are approximants. And since [h] is given in IPA consonantal table as a "glottal fricative", I am not comfortable with [ l ] + [h] --> [ɬ] .
For places of articulation further back in the mouth, languages do not contrast voiced fricatives and approximants. Therefore the IPA allows the symbols for the voiced fricatives to double for the central approximants, with or without a lowering diacritic.
Occasionally the glottal "fricatives" are called approximants, since [h] typically has no more frication than voiceless approximants, but they are often phonations of the glottis without any accompanying manner or place of articulation.
UKT: The above statement "the glottal fricatives are (occasionally) called approximants", justifies my placement of {ha.} as a pharyngeal approximant. And so is my statement that "medial formers {ya. ra. wa. ha.} are approximants".
Central approximants
•
bilabial approximant [β̞] (usually written <β>)
•
labiodental approximant [ʋ]
•
dental approximant [ð̞] (usually written <ð>)
•
alveolar approximant [ɹ]
•
retroflex approximant [ɻ] (a consonantal [ɚ])
•
palatal approximant [j] (a consonantal [i])
•
velar approximant [ɰ] (a consonantal [ɯ])
•
uvular approximant [ʁ̞] (usually written <ʁ>)
•
pharyngeal approximant [ʕ̞] (a consonantal [ɑ]; usually written <ʕ>)
•
epiglottal approximant [ʢ̞] (usually written <ʢ>)
Lateral approximants
•
vd alveolar lateral approximant [ l ]
•
vl alveolar lateral approximant [ l̥]
(UKT: the symbol is small L and ring below) [l̥]
•
retroflex lateral approximant [ɭ]
•
palatal lateral approximant [ʎ]
•
velar lateral approximant [ʟ]
Coarticulated approximants with dedicated IPA symbols
•
voiced labialized velar approximant [w] (a consonantal [u])
•
voiceless labialized velar approximant [ʍ]
•
labialized palatal approximant[ɥ] (a consonantal [y])
•
velarized alveolar lateral approximant[ɫ]
A "central" approximant?
Although many languages have central vowels
[ɨ, ʉ] which lie between back/velar
[ɯ, u] and front/palatal [i, y], there are
no confirmed reports of corresponding approximants.
However, Mapudungun (a South American native language)
may be a possibility: It has three high vowel sounds,
/i/, /u/, /ɨ/, written "i", "u",
"ü", and three corresponding consonants,
written "y", "w", "q".
The first two are clearly /j/ and /w/. The "q"
is often described as a voiced unrounded velar fricative,
but some texts note a correspondence between "q"
and /ɨ/ that is parallel to /j/-/i/ and /w/-/u/.
An example is liq / 'liɣ/ "white".
Go back approximant-note-b
From: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_distribution download 070925
Complementary distribution in linguistics is the relationship between two different elements, where one element is found in a particular environment and the other element is found in the opposite environment. It often indicates that two superficially different elements are in fact the same linguistic unit at a deeper level. Comparing this concept to a coin, there is a "heads" side and a "tails" side. Although heads and tails differ from each other in appearance, and location, they are only two different faces of one and the same coin.
In some instances, more than two elements can be in complementary distribution with one another. Instead of an analogy with the two faces of a coin, consider an analogy with the six faces of a die. Each face has a different appearance and location, but each is a part of one and the same cube.
In phonology: Complementary distribution is commonly applied to phonology, where similar phones in complementary distribution are usually allophones of the same phoneme. For instance, in English, [p] and [pʰ] are allophones of the phoneme /p/ because they occur in complementary distribution. [pʰ] always occurs when it is the syllable onset and followed by a stressed vowel (as in the word <pin>). [p] occurs in all other situations (as in the word <spin>).
UKT:
"In English, [p] and [pʰ] are allophones of the phoneme /p/". However, in Burmese-Myanmar, they are not. In fact, Western linguists have considered the c1 and c2 {wag} aksharas to be allophones of the respective phonemes. This has lead to complete confusion in spelling Burmese names in English, as shown by the way "h" has been inserted to the "base" akshara in spelling Burmese names in English: k, kh; s, hs; t, ht; p, ph . This is led me to adopt the convention of putting "h" before the "base" akshara in Romabama: {ka. hka. ; sa. hsa. ; ta. hta. ; pa. hpa.}. The place immediately after the "base" akshara has been reserved for the "medial former" {ya. ra. wa. ha.}. Thus, with {ha.hto:} where {ha.} is the medial former, we have: {ngha. Ñha. Nha. nha. mha.}. Since, phonotactics of Burmese-Myanmar does not allow {ka. hka. ; sa. hsa. ; ta. hta. ; pa. hpa.} to form medials with {ha.}, there can be no confusion over the convention I have adopted.However, you might be confused over
ordinarily {tha.}. Here, "h" is not {ha.hto:}. It is part of the digraph <th> similar to English <th> in <thin> and <that>. Instead of <th> digraph, I could use <þ> the Old English letter <thorn>. However, no one would easily recognized it as standing for r6c5 akshara, and so I have retained the digraph <th> for common usage. However, when there is clearly a potential for mistaken identity, I have used {þa.} It is noteworthy that
{þha.} because there is an element of "h" in {þa.}/{thha.}, and a second "h" becomes untenable. However, if the "h" already present can be "compromised" by forming a {ya.pin.} first, it can form:
{þhya.}/{thhya.}.
Do the articulations carefully, and you will see that in {þa.}/{tha.}, the tongue tip is just between the upper and lower teeth. In {sa.}, the the tongue tip has been just pulled away but still almost touching both the upper and lower teeth, producing a "hissing" sound. Now, a slight lip rounding and pouting comes in, and the sound of
{rha.} for this sound is "articulatorily" not correct. However, because it is simpler to write
UKT: I have been asked how to write <þ>, in "long hand". First, I write a small L, and then a small P.
There are cases where elements are in complementary distribution, but are not considered allophones. For example in English [h] and [ŋ] (Latin letter engma or eng, written as digraph ng in English) are in complementary distribution, since [h] only occurs at the beginning of a syllable and [ŋ] only at the end. But because they have so little in common they are still considered separate phonemes.
UKT: The generalization [h] only occurs at the beginning of a syllable is only true for common English words. However, in personal names such as Sarah, we do find [h] at the end. Similarly, in transcripted words [ng] can be at the beginning of the syllable, e.g. <ngultrum> /əŋ'guːl.trəm/ -- DJPD16-366 (unit of currency in Butan -- AHTD)
Go back prop-con.htm#comple-distribu-wiki-b
Based on: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant download 070930
UKT:
Phonotactics of Burmese-Myanmar do not allow the following {ha.hto:} medials to be formed:
• r2c1:{sa.} -->
{sa.ha.hto:}
• r4c1:{ta.} -->
{ta.ha.hto:}
• r6c5:
{ha.hto:} cannot be formed with all {wag}-akhsaras (excluding the nasals)UKT: A consonant is a sound, not a letter, glyph nor a grapheme, to represent the sound. The English letter <p> has no sound (it is not a syllable) unless it is supplied with a vowel letter such as <a>. What is meant by the sound of <p> assumes that a suitable vowel letter is there, and is given as /p/ (broad transcription) which has two allophones [p] and [pʰ] (narrow transcription). In Burmese-Myanmar, on the other hand, an akshara character such as
{pa.} (corresponding to English <p>) always has an inherent vowel and has a sound. And therefore
{hpa.}. In Burmese-Myanmar, the akshara grapheme has a one-to-one correspondence with the sound (except in very rare cases such as {þa.}/{tha.}). There are no allophones, and Romabama character {pa.} has the sound [p], and {hpa.} has the sound [pʰ].
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. The word <consonant> comes from Latin (TIL parlance "Roman-Latin") and means "sounding with" or "sounding together," the idea being that consonants don't sound on their own, but occur only with a nearby vowel, which is the case in Latin. This conception of consonants, however, does not reflect the modern linguistic understanding which defines consonants in terms of vocal tract constriction.
Since the number of consonants in the world's languages is much greater than the number of consonant letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the IPA to assign a unique symbol (TIL parlance "glyph") to each possible consonant.
UKT: It has been estimated that the number of glyphs to represent consonantal sounds in a human language is just over 30. (I have forgotten the source of information, but I am sure of the meaning.)
In fact, the Latin alphabet, which is used to write English, has fewer consonant letters than English has consonant sounds, so some letters represent more than one consonant, and digraphs like <sh> and <th> are used to represent some sounds. Many speakers aren't even aware that the <th> sound in <this> is a different sound from the <th> sound in <thing> (in the IPA they're [ð] and [θ], respectively).
UKT: These pages are the basis on which Romabama, a one-to-one transliteration of Burmese-Myanmar into English-Latin, rests. Therefore, I have to take into consideration the phonotactics of not only English but Burmese as well. In Burmese-Myanmar, the two aksharas {sa.} (r2c1) and {ta.} (r4c1) are not allowed to form {ha.hto:} such as
In Burmese-Myanmar, the inherent vowel of a consonant-akshara can be killed by use of an {a.that}. (Hindi: "hal"; Sanskrit: virama; Tamil: "pulli".). However, it is not allowed for medials, {ya.ping.}, {ra.ris}, {wa.hswè:}, and {ha.hto:}. That is, even if
Consonantal features: Each consonant can be distinguished by several features:
•1. The manner of articulation is the method that the consonant is articulated, such as nasal (through the nose), stop (complete obstruction of air), or approximant (vowel like).
•2. The POA is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs, and which speech organs are involved. Places include bilabial (both lips), alveolar (tongue against the gum ridge), and velar (tongue against soft palate). Additionally, there may be a simultaneous narrowing at another place of articulation, such as palatalisation or pharyngealisation.
UKT:
palatalisation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalisation
pharyngealisation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngealisation•3. The phonation of a consonant is how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is called voiced (vd.) ; when they do not vibrate at all, it's voiceless (vl.).
•4. The voice onset time (VOT) indicates the timing of the phonation. Aspiration is a feature of VOT.
UKT: aspiration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspiration_(phonetics)
•5. The airstream mechanism is how the air moving through the vocal tract is powered. Most languages have exclusively pulmonic egressive consonants, which use the lungs and diaphragm, but ejectives, clicks, and implosives use different mechanisms.
UKT: In both Burmese and English, the airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive.
•6. The length is how long the obstruction of a consonant lasts. This feature is borderline distinctive in English, as in <wholly> [hoʊlli] vs. <holy> [hoʊli], but cases are limited to morpheme boundaries. Unrelated roots are differentiated in various languages such as Italian, Japanese and Finnish, with two length levels, "single" and "geminate" (UKT: "geminate" here means "double" recalling the parallel in short and long vowels.). Estonian and some Sami languages (of the area of Ural mountains, the traditional dividing line of Asia from Europe) have three phonemic lengths: short, geminate, and long geminate, although the distinction between the geminate and overlong geminate includes suprasegmental features.
•7. The articulatory force is how much muscular energy is involved. This has been proposed many times, but no distinction relying exclusively on force has ever been demonstrated.
All English consonants can be classified by a combination of these features, such as "voiceless alveolar stop consonant" [t]. In this case the airstream mechanism is omitted.
Some pairs of consonants like p::b, t::d are sometimes called fortis and lenis, but this is a phonological rather than phonetic distinction.
Consonant as a symbol: The word consonant is also used to refer to a letter of an alphabet that denotes a consonant sound. Consonant letters in the English alphabet are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Z, and usually Y: The letter Y stands for the consonant [ j ] in <yoke>, and for the vowel [ɪ] in <myth>, for example; W is almost always a consonant except in rare words like "crwth" "cwm".
UKT: It is curious how Wikipedia has given: "[ɪ] in <myth>". Note that [ɪ] is a checked vowel which is followed by a consonant. The consonant here is the digraph <th>. You may also say that the coda has two consonants <t> and <h>. Since in English the words do not end in <h>, taking the <th> as a digraph is appropriate. How about <myþ>? Here I have used the letter "thorn" for the digraph.
Go back prop-con.htm#con-wiki-b | con-wiki-b2
Based on: Wikipedia
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_consonant download 071017
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorsal_consonant download 070918
Coronal consonants are articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical (using the tongue tip), laminal (using the tongue blade), domed (with the tongue bunched up), or sub-apical (with the tongue curled back), as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such dexterity. Coronals also have another dimension, grooved, that is used to make sibilants in combination with the orientations above.
UKT: sibilants -- based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibilant download 071017
• alveolar: [s] {sa.}, [z] {za.}
• post-alveolar: [ ʃ ]
• alveolar-palatal: [ ɕ ] , [ ʑ ] or palatalized postalveolar equivalent to / ʃʲ, ʒʲ /.
-- / tɕ / is identified to be {hkya.} by Dr. Ko Lay, Assoc. Prof of Linguistics, Myanmarsar Dept., Yangon University. Personal communication, email of 2004 Jan 27, with reference to: {hkyan} /tɕhã/.
• retroflex: [ʂ], [ʐ] -- sometimes transcribed as [s̠ z̠] or [ʂ̻ ʐ̻].
The sibilants have been marked out (by the red rectangle) in the following table. The long blue arrow shows how the Burmese-Myanmar pronounce the palatal-stops, e.g. as a palatal stop English <s> is pronounced with a checked sound. That is the reason why, in Romabama, I have to use the {sa. za.} as palatal stops.
Coronal places of articulation include the dental consonants (UKT note) at the upper teeth, the alveolar consonants at the upper gum (the alveolar ridge), the various postalveolar consonants (domed palato-alveolar, laminal alveolo-palatal, and apical retroflex) just behind that, and the true retroflex consonants curled back against the hard palate.
UKT: The list below gives coronal consonants
listed in the downloaded file. I have indicated
my points of interest within parentheses
Note accompanying the table: (The list below
is missing linguolabial, alveolo-palatal and
retroflex consonants)
• z
Vd alveolar fricative <zoo> /zuː/
• s
Vl alveolar fricative <sea> /siː/
• ð
Vd dental fricative <that> /ðæt/ (digraph <th>)
• θ
Vl dental fricative <thud>
/θʌd/ (digraph <th>)
• ʒ
Vd postalveolar fricative <vision> /vɪʒən/
• ʃ
Vl postalveolar fricative <she>
/ʃiː/ (digraph <sh>)
• n Alveolar nasal <name> /neɪm/ (vowel <eɪ> followed by <m> a nasal consonant)
• d
Vd alveolar plosive <day>
/deɪ/ (vowel /eɪ/ not followed by
a consonant, /eɪ/ seems to be a diphthong: free vowel)
• t
Vl alveolar plosive <tea>/tiː/
(vowel /iː/ is obviously a monopththong: free vowel)
• ɹ
Alveolar approximant <reef>
/ɹiːf/ (vowel /iː/ followed by
/f/ a fricative consonant)
• l
Lateral alveolar approximant <lift>
/lɪft/ (vowel /ɪ/ followed by two consonants)
• r
Alveolar trill Spanish <perro>/pero/
• ɾ
Alveolar tap Spanish <pero>
/peɾo/
Dorsal consonants are articulated with the mid body of the tongue (the dorsum). They contrast with coronal consonants articulated with the flexible front of the tongue, and radical consonants articulated with the root of the tongue.
The dorsum of the tongue can contact a broad region of the roof of the mouth, from the hard palate (so-called palatal consonants), the flexible soft palate (velum) behind that (velar consonants), to the uvula at the back of the mouth cavity (uvular consonants). These distinctions are not clear cut, and sometimes finer gradations such as pre-palatal, pre-velar, and post-velar will be noted.
Because the tip of the tongue can curl back to also contact the hard palate for retroflex consonants, consonants produced by contact between the dorsum and the palate are sometimes called dorso-palatal.
The most common pronunciation of the English letter <g>, as in <the garden> or <to grab>, is dorsal, a voiced velar plosive.
The pronunciation of the letters <k, q> and sometimes <c> , as in <the cake> or <to crawl> is similarly dorsal, a voiceless velar plosive.
Two English approximants, <y> as in <yellow> and <w> as in <white>, are also dorsal consonants, palatal and labialised velar respectively.
The German <ch> sound, found in Scottish English <loch>, is a dorsal fricative.
The reader should note that, because I don't consider myself a phonetician, I always take note of the examples given. I have copied the content of the table given by Wikipedia, and have analysed them from the point of view of a Burmese-Myanmar speaker. Though the examples given does not include Retroflex, I see no reason why they should be left out since the retroflex sounds are very similar to Alveolar sounds. In fact, Burmese-Myanmar speakers pronounce them the same. However, I cannot say for certain that Palatal should be included.
Go back coronal-dosal-con-wiki-b
From: http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-pronunciation-c.htm
The letter [c] in French is a lot like the [c] in English. It can be pronounced in one of two ways:
1. Soft pronunciation (see Vowels for explanation) - In front of an E, I, or Y the C is pronounced like an S. Listen
2. Hard pronunciation (see Vowels for explanation) - In front of an A, O, U, or a consonant, the C is prounced like a K. Listen
3. When a C is in front of a hard vowel but has to be pronounced as a soft C, the accent cedille - ç - is added to make it soft. Thus, ç is never found in front of an E or I, because those are soft vowels.
Go back c-sound-French-note-b
From: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_consonant download 070918
UKT: I always pronounce my Burmese-Myanmar
In linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as /t/, /d/ , /n/, and /l/ in some languages. Dentals are primarily distinguished from sounds in which contact is made with the tongue and the gum ridge, as in English, due to the acoustic similarity of the sounds and the fact that in the Latin alphabet they are generally written using the same symbols (t, d, n, and so on).
UKT: I articulate {ta. da. na.} sounds with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge (without touching the upper teeth), however I pronounce
Because of rarity of <þa>/<th> /θ/ sound, we should be prepared to face misunderstanding on the pronunciation of Burmese-Myanmar {þa.}/{tha.} which I insist has the /θ/ sound.
Dentals cross-linguistically : Sanskrit, Hindi and all other Indic languages have an entire set of dental plosives which occur phonemically as voiced and voiceless, and with or without aspiration. The nasal plosive /n/ also exists in these languages, but is quite alveolar and apical in articulation. In these languages these coronal stops are very similar to those found in Spanish (apico-dental), but different than those in French (lamino-alveolar), and quite distinct from those found in English (apico-alveolar). To the Indian speaker, the alveolar /t/ and /d/ of English sound more like the corresponding retroflex consonants of his own language than the dentals.
The following are dental consonants
that are of interest to me for this paper
(I have taken only the English):
• dental nonsibilant fricatives (also
often called "interdental"):
<thing> /θɪŋ/ ,
<this> [ðɪs]
-- Wikipedia download 070812
Go back dental-con-wiki-b
From: http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/linguistics/russell/138/sec3/moa.htm
A consonant sound can be described completely
by specifying each of the parameters for place
and manner of articulation. For example,
[k] has the following properties:
1. active articulator -- tongue body (dorsum)
2. passive articulator -- soft palate (velum)
3. constriction degree -- stop
4. state of glottis -- voiceless
5. nasality -- no
6. laterality -- no
7. airstream mechanism -- normal
UKT: Whenever we come across a transcription such as [k], the Burmese-Myanmar speaker is advised to make sure that it is actually the narrow transcription [k] and not the broad transcription /k/ which has two allophones [k] corresponding to {ka.} and [kʰ] corresponding to {hka.}. In Burmese-Myanmar {ka.} and {hka.} are not allophones, but each is a phoneme in its own right.
Go back prop-con.htm#conso-segments-b
From: Laryngeal Contrast and Phonetic Voicing: A Laboratory Phonology Approach to English, Hungarian, and Dutch, Wouter Jansen, University Groningen, 2004, www.kuvik.net/wjansen/research/thesis-screen.pdf / http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/FILES/faculties/arts/2004/w.jansen/c1.pdf , 292 PDF pages.
UKT: Though W. Jansen's paper seems to be important in my work, especial with regard to medials, and also to rimes, I feel that it is still beyond my comprehension. I feel that I will have to go through "laryngeal neutralization" in Chapter 3. -- 071018
UKT: German linguistics call the distinction fortis and lenis rather than tense and lax.
See Wikipedia:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortis_and_lenis download 071012
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenseness download 071012
Chapter 1 Introduction
A considerable number of languages use phonetic voicing, the low frequency periodic energy in the speech signal that is produced by vocal fold vibration, to signal a two way lexical distinction between obstruents . For example, Dutch contrasts the voiceless plosives in /pɔl/ tussock (of grass) and /tɔl/ spinning top, with, the voiced initial plosives of /bɔl/ round, spherical and /dɔl/ crazy (about), foolish. The two lexical categories identified by voicing in these languages are often described as phonologically voiceless vs. voiced, but such labels obscure the fact that voicing virtually always acts as part of a cluster of phonetic features when it is used to cue lexical contrast. For example, ceteris paribus (Latin phrase rendered in English as "all other things being equal"), contrastively voiceless (aspirated) obstruents are usually relatively long, preceded by somewhat shortened vowels, and cause a slight increase in the F0 and F1 of flanking vowels. This is one of the reasons why, I (i.e., W. Jansen) will refer to 'phonologically voiceless' obstruents as fortis, tense, or [+tense], and to their 'phonologically voiced' counterparts as lenis, lax, or [-tense].
UKT:
• obstruents are {wag}-aksharas excluding the nasals and {a.wag}-aksharas.
• Vl consonants are usually articulated more strongly -- sometimes described as fortis
• Vd consonants are weaker because a part of airflow energy is used in vibrating the vocal folds -- sometimes described as lenisWikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obstruent download 071018:
• In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes, obstruents and sonorants. An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing outward airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract.
• Obstruents are those articulations in which there is a total closure or a stricture causing friction, both groups being associated with a noise component; in this class there is a distinctive opposition between voiceless and voiced types.
• Obstruents are subdivided into stops, fricatives, and affricates. Obstruents are prototypically voiceless, though voiced obstruents are common. This contrasts with sonorants, which are rarely voiceless.
Not all languages that have a [tense] contrast in this sense use the same voicing categories to cue fortis and lenis obstruents. One type of language contrast voiceless aspirated fortis plosives (e.g. [pʰ, tʰ, cʰ, kʰ, qʰ] or {hpa. hta. hsa. hka. ...}) with passively voiced lenis plosives in word-initial and word-medial contexts. If the latter appear utterance initially or after another obstruent, they are generally realised as voiceless and un-aspirated, e.g. [b̥, d̥, j̊, g̊, ɢ̥], but after a vowel or sonorant consonant they are commonly more or less voiced. I will refer to this type of language, which is exemplified by (standard varieties of) English and German as aspirating. A second type of language contrasts plain voiceless fortis plosives ([p, t, c, k, q]) with lenis plosives that are generally prevoiced across phonetic contexts ([b, d, j, g, ɢ]), and will be referred to as voicing. Southern and Western varieties of Dutch as well as French and Hungarian are typical voicing languages.
Crucially, the two types of language are consistent in the mapping of [± tense] into durational distinctions and spectral cues other than voicing. For example despite their differences in (utterance and post-obstruent) voicing lenis stops of both voicing and aspirating languages are shorter than the corresponding stops, have longer preceding vowels, and act as F0/F1 depressors. This justifies the use of the four (and perhaps more) gross phonetic categories introduced in the previous paragraph to describe tense and lax obstruents, rather than the two or three suggested by the phonological literature: aspirated fortis ([pʰ]), plain voiceless fortis ([p]), passively voiced lenis ([b̥]) utterances initially or after another obstruent, and actively voiced lenis ([b]).
UKT: Terms used in the above paragraph:
• plain vl fortis [p] - {pa.}
• aspirated fortis [pʰ] - {hpa.}
• passively vd lenis [b̥] - (not present in basic Burmese-Myanmar) - Can it be {bya.}? (I am waiting input from my peers).
• actively vd lenis [b] - {ba.}
This dissertation investigates the formal and phonetic properties of fortis and lenis obstruents, with a descriptive focus on the Germanic languages and Hungarian. It argues that these properties are best understood in terms of the nature of human speech production and perception, and is therefore broadly functionalist in outlook. The following paragraphs outline how the argument is built up.
(The following footnote is interesting.)
"Dutch [i, y, u] share the phonotactics of
long vowels such as [aː] rather than
'true' short vowels such as [ ɪ ʏ].
Thus, they can appear in open monosyllables
(e.g., [ku], cow ) and open final syllables.
In these contexts they can only be closed
by a single consonant (modulo the same exceptions
that apply to the other long vowels) whilst
they can only occur in open non-final syllables.
Characterising [ i, y, u] as simply long
is not wholly unproblematic however, because
standard Duch does allow phonetically long high vowels
in loans such as [analiːze], analysis .
This has created near-minimal pairs such as [zun], kiss
vs. [zuːn], zoom . However, in the absence
of an agreed IPA diacritic for 'tenseness' I have opted to
appropriate the length diacritic to mark the class
of phonotactically long vowels in Dutch
underlying representations."
Go back fortis-lenis-con-b
by UKT
I am viewing fricatives as a continuum of more or less continuous sounds from [h] to [ ʃ ], [s] and [θ]. The equivalent would be from
{ha.} [h] (the aspiration sound in the larynx) to
The "hisser" [s] sound is produced at a narrow opening formed by the almost closed upper and lower front teeth and the tip of the tongue just touching them). They can be produced continuously. See the figures on the right from UNIL. Can I really say that {sa.} and {za.} are hissers? The answer is definite "no" as soon as I put {sa.} in the coda position as in
{kis} which is transcribed as /[ki']/ by MLC in MEDict018. Moreover, when I transliterate English-Latin <kiss> /kɪs/ to Burmese-Myanmar, I have to write
{kis(s)} with an extra {sa.} in parentheses, otherwise it becomes
In Pali-Myanmar, row #2 akshara are written as
{za.} the palatal stops. The same is done in Burmese-Myanmar. Here, {sa.} and {za.} are not "hissers" but IPA [c] and [ ɟ ]. Because of this, I would have to say that Burmese-Myanmar speakers cannot really articulate IPA [c] and [ ɟ ], but have to "substitute" them with hisser fricatives. We see the same problem with English speakers. The nearest the English can articulate are [ʧ] and [ʤ] -- not stops but affricates.
[c] always present a problem for me since I was child learning to write English, where <c> is pronounced in three different ways as in : <cat>, <cell> and <cello>.
Sibilants form an important subset of fricatives, and I may have to rewrite the two sections together. From the point of view of Burmese-Myanmar, the superset to which the two sections belong is the {a.wag}-consonants, which also has approximants as a subset.
In order not to contradict the foundation of the Myanmar akshara, I will have to introduce a new symbol (?) not present in the Burmese-Myanmar orthography for [s] as
{þya.} (not
The following is from: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fricative_consonant download 070824
Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These are the lower lip against the upper teeth in the case of [f], or the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German [x], the final consonant of Bach. This turbulent airflow is called frication. A particular subset of fricatives are the sibilants (sometimes referred to as stridents). When forming a sibilant, one still is forcing air through a narrow channel, but in addition the tongue is curled lengthwise to direct the air over the edge of the teeth. English [s], [z], [ʃ], and [ʒ] are examples of this.
The above Wikipedia article listed:
• [s] voiceless coronal sibilant
• [z] voiced coronal sibilant
• [ʃ] voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant (domed, partially palatalized)
• [ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar sibilant (domed, partially palatalized)
• [ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant (laminal, palatalized)
• [ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant (laminal, palatalized)
• [θ̼] voiceless linguolabial fricative
• [ð̼] voiced linguolabial fricative
UKT:
My question concerning the fricatives is this. In both English-Latin and Burmese-Myanmar, the palatal stops (or plosives) are missing. In English the nearest they can come up with are affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ] formed from [ ʃ ] and [ʒ], whereas in Burmese-Myanmar, the substitutes are [ç] (alt0231) and [ ʝ ] (U029D).At the present (071019) my position is:
• Because, ç is an ASCII, I can use it in Romabama, but I will not be able to use ʝ (U029D) because it is not an ASCII character. And therefore for the palatal stops, I will have to use {sa.} and {za.}, knowing fully well that [s] and [z] represented by <s> and <z> are alveolar fricatives.
• Burmese-Myanmar
• Burmese-Myanmar
Go back fricative-wiki-b1 | fricative-wiki-b2 | fricative-wiki-b3
From: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop download 071016
The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the IPA that represents this sound is ʔ (UKT: question mark without a dot). The glottal stop is the sound made when the vocal cords (vocal folds) are pressed together to stop the flow of air and then released; for example, the break separating the syllables of the interjection uh-oh.
UKT: Note how <uh-oh> is written. The letter <h> is there. Therefore, the glottal stop is really the representation of <h> sound.
Features of the glottal stop:
• 1. Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop,
which means it is produced by obstructing airflow
in the vocal tract.
• 2. Its place of articulation is glottal which
means it is articulated by the vocal folds.
• 3. Its phonation type is voiceless, which
means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• 4. It is an oral consonant, which means
air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• 5. Because it is pronounced in the throat; without
a component in the mouth, the central/lateral dichotomy
does not apply.
(UKT: that is the tongue remains imobile.)
• 6. The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive,
which means it is articulated by pushing air out of
the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather
than from the glottis or the mouth.
UKT: Feature #2 means vocal folds are taking part. Feature #3 means vocal folds are not vibrating. Reading #2 and #3 together, means vocal folds are acting just like an on-off valve similar to a water faucet or stopcock. The glottis is the space or cavity between the vocal folds. We see another on-off valve in the soft-palate (dubbed "velum" by linguists).
Occurrence :
Though Wikipedia gives many examples of languages,
I am taking only Burmese and English.
• Burmese
{mris-mya:} [mjiʔ mjà] . Meaning: "rivers"
• English <cat> [kæʔ(t)] . Dialectal.
Allophone of /t/. See Wikipedia for
glottalization and
English phonology
UKT:
• From the example given for Burmese, we can see what the Western linguists mean by the "glottal stop" is nothing but the "sound" of a "killed" {wag}-consonant (nasals and {a.wag} not included).
• Notice how narrow transcription for <cat> is given: [kæʔ(t)]. In broad transcription it is /kæt/ -- DJPD16-086
Go back glottal-stop-wiki-b
From: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottalic_theory download 070930
The glottalic theory holds that Proto-Indo-European (PIE) had ejective stops instead of voiced ones, namely p’ t’ k’ rather than b d g, contrary to the traditional reconstruction of the PIE sound system.
UKT: Is it possible that [p’ t’ k’] are killed aksharas found in the rimes of Burmese-Myanmar syllables such as {ap} {at} {ak}? Here we are finding the killed akshara in the coda. Is it possible to find the killed akshara in the onset? Let's see my reasoning:
We have always thought that the {a.that} is used to kill the inherent vowel {a.} of the second akshara:
{pa.}
(a syllable is formed)
There is no reason why we cannot have
{pa.}
{ap} --> {pap}
Do not think that I am confusing "sound" and "symbol". In Burmese-Myanmar, they have a one-to-one correspondence, and are deemed the same. Even if you do not agree with me, just for argument sake, assume that they are. What I am suggesting is:
{pa.}
{p}* [p'] , which immediately combines with
{p}* +
Further, it holds that p’ was absent or very rare, so the glottalized series is sometimes written (p’) t’ k’.
The glottalic theory was developed independently in the United States by Paul Hopper (1973) and in the Soviet Union by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov. In its earliest version, proposed by the Danish linguist Holger Pedersen (1951), it did not involve the use of glottalized sounds. While earlier linguists, such as André Martinet and Morris Swadesh, had seen the potential of substituting glottalic sounds for the supposed plain voiced stops of Proto-Indo-European, the proposal remained speculative until substantial evidence for it was simultaneously published in 1973 by Hopper in the journal Glossa and by Gamkrelidze and Ivanov in the journal Phonetica.
Indo-European stop series
The traditional reconstruction of Indo-European includes the following stops:
| The Proto-Indo-European plosives (traditional) | |||||
| Consonants | labials | dentals | palatalized velars | velars | labialized velars |
| vl. stops | p | t | kʲ | k | kʷ |
| vd. stops | (b) | d | gʲ | g | gʷ |
| breathy vd. stops | bʱ | dʱ | gʲʱ | gʱ | gʷʱ |
/b/ is parenthesized because it is at best very rare and perhaps nonexistent.
UKT: In the following lines, note that I am holding that Burmese-Myanmar and Pali-Myanmar to be separate languages. I am looking into the possibility that Burmese might be (emphasis might be) related to PIE.
If we are to assume that Burmese-Myanmar was related to what is here described as PIE (my assumption based on the word for <salt> which in Burmese-Myanmar is
{hsa:} /saː/), we can see that vl. stops are c1 and c2, vd. stops are c3, and breathy vd. stops are c4 of the {wag}-aksharas.
According to traditional Burmese history, the land of Myanmar was inhabited by four ancient races: Pyu {pyu}, Kanyan {kam:yän}, Thet {thak} and Myanmar {mran-ma}. The remnants of Pyu are still found in the area of Mindon. Kanyan is supposed to the ancestors of Rahkines and Thet the ancestors of Chins. The Pyus were supposedly the dominant race in the land even before 500 BC. (I am writing this note in Canada on 070930, and I still have to recheck with Myanmar sources. It is highly possible for me to retract my words.)
According to Stargardt, J., The Ancient Pyu of Burma, mentioned in Historical Geography of Burma www.iias.nl/iiasn/25/theme/25T6.html "Pyu settlement in Burma undoubtedly goes back to late prehistory, to the centuries from c. 400 100 BC.
... Beikthano evolved to an urban level of socio-economic complexity during the first century BC.5 At that time, the Pyus and other peoples of Central Burma already had technical contacts with parts of Eastern India, which took place without the adoption of Indian cultural or religious traditions. Thus, the Pyu evidence shows that concepts of Indianization as a process of 'cultural colonization' need modifying to account for the significant levels of civilization attained in Southeast Asia before aspects of Indian culture were selectively adopted and adapted6. The Pyus probably began to convert to Buddhism between the second to third century AD, and by the fourth century, at the latest, a major monastic building in fired brick was constructed at Beikthano. By the fifth century AD, Sri Ksetra was the centre of a rich society whose influence was spreading to other parts of Burma and where Buddhism flourished under royal patronage."UKT: The names of cities, Beikthano and Sri Ksetra, suggest that the Pyus might have trading links to the Indus-Saraswati-Indus civilization, which in high probability had cultural links to two other ancient civilizations: the Nile valley and the Euphrates-Tigris valley. Since, what set me thinking about PIE is because of the word for <salt>, if only we could find out how the Pyu called one of the most essentials of the human and animal diet, the "salt", it would be give a shred of evidence. Unfortunately, Pyu is a dead language. However, we may get a glimpse of how the ancient Pyus called this item from their known modern descendants: the people of Mindon area, and that of Halin village in the far north. U Nyo Win, in his Modern-day salt production at the ancient Pyu city of Halin, (in Burmese-Myanmar), 2003 http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~hudson/halin_salt_nyo_win.pdf , gave the terms used in salt making: • {ka:} • {ka:ha.} • {ka.sis} • {ka.theik} • {ka.na:} • {tis-Bwan-sis} • {tis-Bwan-kya.}
Since, Pyu and Myanmar were supposedly very much intertwined (as seen from the worship of the five Pyu nats by the Burmese-Myanmar to this day), my quest is to find out whether there is a similarity in ejective stops (or plosives) across the Pyu and Burmese-Myanmar languages. (For the worship of Pyu nats, see Dr. Maung Htin Aung, Thirty-Seven Lords, Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism , a publication of Religious Affairs Dept., Rangoon, Burma, 1981 -- available online http://www.tuninst.net/Myanmar/Folk-elements/ch07-0408/ch07-0408.htm#thirty-seven-lords )
There are several problems with this reconstruction. From a typological point of view, if a single voiced stop is missing from a phoneme inventory, it would normally be /g/ that is missing, not /b/; on the other hand, if a voiceless stop is missing, the labial /p/ would be the most likely candidate. (This is close to universal with ejective /p’/.) Furthermore, there are few languages which have breathy voiced consonants but no voiceless aspirates, and yet fewer that also contrast breathy voice with full voice. Finally, Proto-Indo-European did not permit a root to begin and end with a voiced stop, i.e. there are no such roots as *deg or *ged; this is typologically very odd again.
This inventory was not introduced as an independent proposal, but instead arose as a modification of an earlier (typologically more plausible) theory. In the original Proto-Indo-European proposal, there was a fourth phonation series, aspirated /pʰ, tʰ, kʲʰ, kʰ, kʷʰ/, assumed to exist by analogy with Sanskrit, which at the time was thought to be the most conservative Indo-European language. However, it was later realized that this series was unnecessary and was generally the result of a sequence of a tenuis stop such as /t/ and a laryngeal such as /h/. The aspirate series was removed, but the breathy voiced consonants remained.
UKT: Whenever we come across statements "tenuis stop such as /t/", we must be careful. According to Western phoneticians, the phoneme /t/ has two allophones. According to them, the sounds of {ta.} and {hta.} are allophones of the same phoneme /t/. This, we cannot accept. The sounds of {ta.} and {hta.} are separate phonemes.
The term tenuis comes from Latin translations of Ancient Greek grammar, which differentiated three series of consonants, voiced β δ γ, aspirate φ θ χ, and tenuis π τ κ; these series have close parallels in other Indo-European languages.
The glottalic theory proposes a different phonetic inventory for Proto-Indo-European:
| Proto-Indo-European plosives (original glottalic) | |||||
| Consonants | labials | dentals | palatalized velars | velars | labialized velars |
| vl. stops | p | t | - | k | kʷ |
| ejective or glottalised stops | (p’) | t’ | - | k’ | kʷ’ |
| vd. stops | b | d | - | g | gʷ |
Such a system is common among the world's languages. Moreover, the revised system explains a number of phonological peculiarities in the reconstructed system.
Hopper (1973) also proposed that the aspiration that had been assumed for the voiced stops bh, dh, gh could be accounted for by a low-level phonetic feature known to phoneticians as "breathy voice." This proposal made it possible both to establish a system in which there was only one voiced stop and at the same time to explain developments in later Indo-European dialects (Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit) that pointed to some kind of aspiration in the voiced series. In their 1973 article, Gamkrelidze and Ivanov posited aspiration in both voiced and voiceless stops.
In addition to motivating the absence of a labial plain voiced stop *b in the proto-language, the Glottalic Theory illuminated a longstanding but unexplained observation of Indo-Europeanists about the distribution of consonants in word roots. It had long been noted that certain combinations of consonants were not represented in PIE words. In terms of the traditional system, these were:
1. No root contained a sequence of two plain voiced stops, that is, in schematic terms, there were no roots of the type *deg.
2. No root contained both a voiceless stop and a voiced aspirate, that is, roots of the type *dhek or *tegh were not attested.
3. On the other hand, the plain voiced stops were compatible with either of the other two series: *degh or *dek were both possible.
These constraints on the phonological structure of the root cannot be explained in terms of a theory of assimilation or dissimilation, since they display a radical difference in patterning between two sets of consonants — the voiced stops — that ought to behave identically. The Glottalic Theory provides a completely coherent explanation (Hopper 1973):
1. In very many languages that have glottalic consonants, there is a constraint against two such consonants in the same root. This constraint has been found in many languages of Africa, the Americas, and the Caucasus.
2. If the "plain voiced stops" were not voiced, then the "voiced aspirated stops" were the only voiced stops. The second constraint can accordingly be reformulated as: Two nonglottalic stops must agree in voicing.
3. Since the glottalic stops were outside the voiced/voiceless opposition, they were immune from the constraint on voicing agreement in (2).
Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1973, 1995:5-70) posited that the two non-ejective series (traditional *p *t *k and *bh *dh *gh) were fundamentally aspirated (that is, *ph *th *kh and *bh *dh *gh) but had non-aspirated allophones (that is, *p *t *k and *b *d *g). According to them, the non-aspirated forms occurred in roots where two non-ejectives were present because of a rule that prohibited more than one aspirate in the same root. To express the variability of aspiration Gamkrelidze and Ivanov write it with a superscripted h, for example dʰ. Thus an Indo-European DʰeDʰ (where Dʰ represents any non-ejective stop) might be realized as DeDʰ (attested by Indic and Greek) or as DʰeD (attested by Italic). In contrast, traditional theory would trace a form attested as both DeDh and DheD to an Indo-European DheDh. The advantage of Gamkrelidze and Ivanov's interpretation is that it eliminates a very unusual or even unique feature of the Indo-European stop system, since according to Roman Jakobson all languages that have voiced aspirates also have voiceless aspirates. By identifying the voiceless non-aspirates of the traditional stop system (*p *t *k) as voiceless aspirates (*pʰ *tʰ *kʰ), Gamkrelidze and Ivanov restored the missing series.
One objection to this reconstruction is that the voiced consonants are frequently voiceless in the daughter languages; aspirates in Greek and voiceless fricatives in Latin, for example. While it is common for aspirates to become tenuis and then voiced, as pʰ → p → b (lenition), the reverse is rare [verification needed]. Thus more recent versions of this hypothesis do not have voiced consonants at all, or treat voicing as non-distinctive. Such an inventory is:
| Proto-Indo-European plosives (recent) | |||||
| Consonants | labials | dentals | velars | uvulars | labialized velars |
| vl. stops | p | t | k | q | kʷ |
| ejective or glottalised stops | (p’) | t’ | k’ | q’ | kʷ’ |
| aspirated stops | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | qʰ | kʷʰ |
(Here the traditional palatalized vs. plain velar dichotomy is treated as a velar-uvular contrast, as posited by Hopper 1981. This is not required for the glottalic theory, and may have been allophonic at an early stage in the proto-language.)
Decem and Taihun
In 1981 Hopper proposed to divide all Indo-European languages into Decem and Taihun groups, according to the pronunciation of the numeral 10, by analogy with the Centum-Satem isogloss, which is based on the pronunciation of the numeral 100. The Armenian, Germanic, Anatolian and Tocharian subfamilies belong to the Taihun group because the numeral 10 begins from the voiceless t there. All other Indo-European languages belong to the Decem group because the numeral 10 begins from the voiced d in them.
Objections
The primary objection to the glottalic theory is the difficulty in explaining how the sound systems of the attested dialects were derived from a parent language in the above form. If the parent language had a typologically unusual system, like the traditional p-b-bh, then it might be expected to collapse into more typical systems, possibly with different solutions in the various daughter languages, which is what one finds. For example, Indo-Iranian added an unvoiced aspirate series, gaining an element of symmetry; Greek and Italic devoiced the murmured series to a more common aspirate series; Balto-Slavic deaspirated the murmured series to modal voice; and Germanic and Armenian chain-shifted all three series. In each case, the attested system represents a change that could be expected from the proposed parent.
Now if the system were typologically common, as proposed by the glottalic theory, then it might be expected to be stable and therefore to have been preserved in at least some of the daughter languages, which is not the case: no daughter language preserves ejective sounds where the glottalic theory postulates them. However, if Proto-Indo-European did not have true ejectives but rather some less stable kind of glottalic consonant, their loss would be more understandable. However, even "stable" systems change, and that an objection based on what "should" have happened cannot really overturn a serious and otherwise well-motivated reconstruction. In all reconstructions of phonological systems one proceeds by comparing the evidence of the daughter languages and projecting them back to a common proto-form, not by first declaring this or that change to be a priori implausible.
Opponents of the glottalic theory have objected that it is not based on any direct evidence. Although murmured consonants are uncommon, they are at least directly attested in the Indo-Aryan languages (which is, of course, why they were postulated in the first place). Roman Jakobson's assertion that no language is known which has murmured consonants unless it also has voiceless aspirates is disputed by some linguists who oppose the glottalic theory; for example, Robert Blust showed that a system of voiceless, voiced and murmured stops, as postulated in the traditional reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European, exists in Kelabit, a language of the Sarawak highlands in Borneo. But unlike the revised system of Indo-European stops, the traditional system is at best a typological rarity. As to the alleged lack of "direct evidence," the reconstruction of proto-languages is often based on indirect indications. Even in the traditional reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European, for example, there is no direct evidence for a voiced aspirated labiovelar stop gʷʱ.
Some have assumed that the glottalic theory represents an earlier stage in the history of PIE, which developed into the traditional system in later PIE. This would explain both the root restrictions in PIE and the universal loss of glottalic consonants in the daughter languages, but would leave us with a proto-language phonological system identical to the one that has been criticized, and also assumes a long period of internal evolution within which Proto-Indo-European would have been otherwise uniform before branching out into the daughter languages.
Although controversial at first, some variant of the glottalic theory is generally accepted today. The reason is that it neatly resolves a number of problems that it was not designed to solve, in effect giving it some empirical support. For example, in both Latin (Lachmann's law) and Balto-Slavic (Winter's law), vowels are lengthened before a "voiced" consonant. This had always been somewhat puzzling. It is the same behaviour that vowels exhibit before laryngeals, which are assumed to include a glottal stop. It may be that the glottalic consonants were preglottalized, or that they were ejectives that became preglottalized in Italic and Balto-Slavic before losing their glottalization and becoming voiced. It is very common in the world's languages for glottal stops to drop and lengthen preceding vowels. In Quileute, for example, VC’V, VʔC’V, and VːC’V (such as ak’a ~ a’k’a ~ āk’a) are allophones in free variation.
Sources:
• Paul J. Hopper, "Glottalized and murmured occlusives
in Indo-European." Glossa 7:2:1973, 141-166.
• Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and Vjacheslav V. Ivanov, Indo-European and the
Indo-Europeans, translated by Johanna Nichols, 2 volumes. Berlin and New
York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1995.
• Robert S.P. Beekes, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics.
John Benjamins, 1995.
• Anthony Fox, Linguistic Reconstruction. Oxford, 1995.
End of Wikipedia article
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prop-con.htm#glottalic-th-wiki-b
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottalization download 071016
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and voiced consonants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of voiceless consonants usually involves complete closure of the glottis; another way to describe this phenomenon is to say that a glottal stop is made simultaneously with another consonant. In certain cases, the glottal stop can even wholly replace the voiceless consonant.
UKT: Whenever I came across the term "creaky voice", it raised a red-flag in my mind. What does it really mean? I can only rely on the examples given: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language download 071019 (I have rearranged the examples given to follow {a. a a:} (short, medial, long -- see chroneme in these notes not necessarily on this page, and also see IPA table on suprasegmentals):
• Creaky /kʰa̰/ 'fee' {hka.} register #1
• Low /kʰà/ 'shake' {hka} register #2
• High /kʰá/ 'be bitter' {hka:} register #3
• Checked /kʰaʔ/ 'draw off' {hkap} -- different class from above 3
In syllables ending with /N/, the Checked tone is excluded:
• Creaky /kʰa̰N/ 'appoint' {hkan.} -- MEDict065 ; register #1
• Low /kʰàN/ 'undergo' {hkän} -- MEDict058 : register #2 (different orthography from one above, and one below)
• High /kʰáN/ 'dry up' {hkan:} -- MEDict065 : register #3
Please note that Wikipedia is being constantly updated, and the textual content can change over time. I have included the Burmese-Myanmar orthography and the register number.
There are two other ways to represent glottalization in the IPA:
(a) the same way as ejectives, with an apostrophe; or
(b) with the under-tilde for creaky voice. For example,
the Yapese word for sick with a glottalized
m could be transcribed as either [m’aar] or
[m̰aar]. (In some typefaces, the apostrophe
will occur above the m.)
Glottal replacement
When a phoneme is completely substituted by a glottal stop [ʔ], one speaks of glottaling or glottal replacement. This is, for instance, very common in Cockney and Estuary English. In these dialects, the glottal stop is an allophone of /p/, /t/, and /k/ word-finally and when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by an unstressed vowel (this also includes syllabic /l/ /m/ and /n/). E.g "city" [ˈsɪʔɪ], "bottle" [ˈbɒʔəɫ], "Britain" [ˈbɹɪʔən], "seniority" [siːniˈɒɹəʔi]
UKT: Looking at the Cockney transcriptions reminds me of the "h dropping" in George Benard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1913) which was made into a Broadway musical My Fair Lady .
In Hawaiian, the glottal stop is reconstructed to have come from other Proto-Polynesian consonants. The following table displays the shift /k/ --> /ʔ/ as well as the shift /t/ --> /k/
| Gloss | man | sea | taboo | octopus | canoe |
| Tongan | taŋata | tahi | tapu | feke | vaka |
| Samoan | taŋata | tai | tapu | feʔe | vaʔa |
| Māori | taŋata | tai | tapu | ɸeke | waka |
| Rapanui | taŋata | tai | tapu | heke | vaka |
| Rarotongan | taŋata | tai | tapu | ʔeke | vaka |
| Hawaiian | kanaka | kai | kapu | heʔe | waʔa |
Glottal replacement is not purely a feature of consonants. Yanesha' has three vowel qualities (/a/, /e/, and /o/) contrasts them phonemically between short, long, and "laryngeal" or glottalized forms. While the latter generally consists of creaky phonation, there is some allophony involved. In In pre-final contexts, a variation occurs (especially before voiced consonants) ranging from creaky phonation throughout the vowel to a sequence of a vowel, glottal stop, and a slightly rearticulated vowel: /maˀˈnʲoʐ/ ('deer') → [maʔa̯ˈnʲoʂ] .
Glottal reinforcement
When a phoneme is accompanied (either sequentially or simultaneously) by a [ʔ], then one speaks of pre-glottalization or glottal reinforcement. This is very common in all varieties of English, RP included; /t/ is the most affected but /p/, /k/, and even occasionally /ʧ/ are also affected. In the English dialects exhibiting pre-glottalization, the consonants in question are usually glottalized in the coda position. E.g. "what" [ˈwɒʔt], "fiction" [ˈfɪʔkʃən], "milkman" [ˈmɪlʔkmæn], "opera" [ˈɒʔpɹə]. To a certain extent, there is free variation in English between glottal replacement and glottal reinforcement.
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