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It is unusual for a language to contrast a semivowel and a diphthong containing an equivalent vowel, [citation needed] but Romanian contrasts the diphthong /e̯a/ with /ja/, a perceptually similar approximant-vowel sequence. The diphthong is analyzed as a single segment, and the approximant-vowel sequence is analyzed as two separate segments.
On the other hand, [ʝ̞] is unspecified as far as rounding is concerned and it is assimilated to the labial vowel context: rounded with rounded vowels, e.g. ayuda [aˈʝ̞ʷuð̞a] ⓘ 'help', coyote [koˈʝ̞ʷote] ⓘ 'coyote', hoyuelo [oˈʝ̞ʷwelo] ⓘ 'dimple', etc., and unrounded with unrounded vowels: payaso [paˈʝ̞aso] ⓘ 'clown ...
^** Because the vowels [i ɯ] are articulated with spread lips, spreading is implied for their approximant analogues, [j ɰ]. However, these sounds generally have little or no lip-spreading. The fricative letters with a lowering diacritic, ʝ˕ ɣ˕ , may therefore be justified for a neutral articulation between spread [j ɰ] and rounded [ɥ w ...
However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter β̞ as j͡β̞ (simultaneous [j] and labial compression) or jᵝ ([j] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ͍ may also be used with a labialized approximant letter ɥ͍ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is j̃ , that is, a j with a tilde. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j~, and in the Americanist phonetic notation it is ỹ . The nasal palatal approximant is sometimes called a nasal yod; [j̃] and [w̃] may be called nasal glides.
Voiceless sonorants are rare; they occur as phonemes in only about 5% of the world's languages. [3] They tend to be extremely quiet and difficult to recognise, even for those people whose language has them. In every case of a voiceless sonorant occurring, there is a contrasting voiced sonorant.
In broad transcription, the symbol for the palatal approximant, j , may be used for the sake of simplicity. The voiced palatal fricative is a very rare sound, occurring in only 7 of the 317 languages surveyed by the original UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database [ citation needed ] .
Ball & Rahilly too criticise in a footnote the confusion between these symbols: 'The difference between an approximant version of the voiced velar fricative [ɣ], and the velar semi-vowel [ɰ] is that the latter requires spread lips, and must have a slightly more open articulatory channel so that it becomes if prolonged' (p. 189, fn. 1).