Re: Voice in Icelandic and English

Heill Haukur,

There is one notable overlap - þ/ð. Although both are spelled 'th' in
English, there is a phonemic difference (ie. breath/breathe).

Now, I'm confused, though. How would a pair like tala/dala be distinguished,
if not by voice? Also, I've never seen voiceless 'm', what words does it
appear in?

However, that being said, the loss of voice-distinction helps explain the
development of the Younger Futhark...

Dan

Haukur Thorgeirsson wrote:

> Just a thought.
>
> According to the phonetic description of Icelandic I was taught
> voice is phonemic in the following Icelandic sounds:
>
> j
> l
> m
> n
> r
>
> And as far as I can tell with English voice is phonemic in
> the following sounds:
>
> f
> t
> p
> k
> s
> sh
> ch
>
> It would seem that there is no overlap between the two languages!
> Sounds that occur as either voiced or unvoiced in Icelandic exist
> only in one variety in English - and vice versa.
>
> No wonder we're having trouble :-)
>
> Kveðja,
> Haukur
>
> --
> Svá æ folkmýgi.
>
>
> Sumir hafa kvæði...
> ...aðrir spakmæli.
>
> - Keth
>
> Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
>
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--
Daniel Bray
dbray@...
School of Studies in Religion A20
University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia

"The smarter someone's suit, the dirtier their soul," - Imogen Edwards-Jones