Miguel:
>Thinking about what I said above, I ran the files for intervocalic /m/
>(Cons13b.wav /ama/) and /n/ (Cons15b.wav /ana/) through the analyzer tool.
It's great to see that you're busying yourself with such
fruitless projects. Do you think that there is only one way
of saying /ama/ or /ana/?
I grew up with English, speak French... cuz afterall, I'm
Canadian :) ..., and have a basic knowledge of Mandarin. I can
perceive a difference between the /d/ of English, that of French,
and even that of Mandarin. It all has to do with voicing onset,
tongue position and perhaps even the quality of the voicing
itself. French /d/ comes across as being the "breathiest" of all,
while Mandarin /d/ sounds the most constricted in comparison.
So likewise, I have to wonder which "m" is being pronounced in
those wav files of yours. Sometimes an /m/ can be pronounced
quite short to the point that it almost sounds like /b/ or /p/.
Sometimes it can be quite nasalized. There are many ways of
pronouncing this "m", depending on your pattern of speech.
Why don't you address that, rather than superfluous talk about
an f1 and f2 of an unspecified "m"? We don't know whether the
data you present has been biased with lurking variables such
as these.
Of course, if it is a matter of _how_ *m, in contrast to *n,
is pronounced that may cause neighbouring nasalization of vowels
then I'm all the more correct that nasalization is _not_ the sole
cause of such a phenomenon. If only you could qualify into
coherent words what your theory actually is so that I could
discount it >:)
>The raising effect caused by nasals in general (e > i, o > u, a > &) is
>caused by [...]
More irony...
How come nasalization in Pre-IE is supposed to _prevent_ *a
from becoming a HIGHER *o then?? Everything you've said above
is opposite to what you've claimed for Pre-IE. You're disproving
yourself!
- gLeN
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