Re: Unvoiced [j]?

>I am beginning to learn Hungarian and this is what my book says on
>page four:
>"There is however an unvoiced variant of the voiced fricative (sic)
>j in a special phonetic situation: after unvoiced consonants at the
>end of a word kapj 'may you have'"
>
>An unvoiced j??? Is the author confused (I mean afaik <j> in
>Hungarian is rather an approximant than a sibiland) or does such a
>thing exist in Hungarian? What does it sound like? kap + whispering j?

Yes, indeed. Oh boy, this is actually quite the same thing as
in the Romanian i-plural without definite article (oameni, pa$i,
multzi etc.)

So, you'll have to pretend uttering an /i/, but you'll whisper rather
an /h/ or so (sort of a /kOph/. But the whole uttering apparatus has
to freeze for the given fraction of a second in the position for an /i/. If you
can't, then simply say /kap/, and that'll do. The native-speaker frown. :)

>thanks
>Harald

You're welcome.
George