Re: Odp: [cybalist] Odp: Balto and Slavic Rs.

Piotr--
Many Polish learners of Russian find it difficult
to synchronise the palatal gesture with the trill
and tend to produce [rj]
--

The 'palatal gesture'. Please explain. Tho' I think
I'm beginning to understand.

I think I need the lecture on *exactly* what palatalization involves.
I'm asking about what the tongue does.

[digression: How old is the joke among historical linguists about
their Balto-Slavo-Indo-Iranian compeers, the one about being
'satemites' and engaging in 'satemy'. I Apologize, bu the pun is
irresistible]

Piotr--
Maybe we should open a special list devoted
to phonetic problems; on the other hand, such stuff
has a bearing on some IE issues (rhotacism in NW
Germanic and Latin, retroflexion and R/L confusion
in Indo-Iranian, etc.).
--

Maybe we should. My phonology is sketchy and mostly
self-taught *(yes, I know: it shows)*.

Ts and Ds. Someone mentioned 'city' as 'dull d'. I notice this is a
rather peculiar T. My tongue is pushed up against the back of my
front
teeth, with the tip slightly protruding under the teeth, outward. I
can, of course, move my tongue back onto the alveolar ridge
(actually,
slightly around and up towards the dome of the mouth) and do a proper
T, tho' the effect is not that different.

There are lots of ways to do Ds and Ts. An interesting one is to put
the tip of the tongue against the back of the lower teeth, with the
mid part of the tongue hitting the alveolar ridge. Another is putting
the tip of the tongue at the highest point in the dome of the mouth;
the word 'sharp' comes to mind to describe the effect.

Mark.