--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
> What I am representing as /¿/ is Arabic ¿ayin. I perceive it as a
voiced pharyngeal stop similar to /?/, the glottal (laryngeal) stop.
The raspy release sounds a bit like a fricative.
Perhaps it was originally a voiced pharyngeal stop, weakened to a
fricative, and then merged with a pre-existing /z/?