Re: Unvoiced [j]?

>I've seen Hungarian <j>, <ly> described (by Hungarian phoneticians) both
>as a glide and a fricative. My impression is that it's a rather narrow
>approximant, less vocalic than English <y>,

If Hungarian phoneticians describe it like that, then it must be
so. But I'd ask them, however, if they really distinguish any /j/
difference between Hung. "jó" (good), "játék" (game, play)
and Germ. "ja(wohl), jo, jau" and Engl. "yo, man!" + "yeoman"
(OTOH, any Hungarian, who's not in perfect command of
orthography, won't be able in each case to choose the correct
spelling for words containing "j" and "ly".)

>Piotr

George