----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2000 6:41
PM
Subject: Re: [phoNet] Re: Phonetic
curiosities
I'll try to evade the onglide-thingies that I'm not competent with
and rather rely on practical examples :). I forgot to use Spanish to
demonstrate diphtongs in action (I studied Spanish some four years
ago
so it needs revising). The language has many diphtongs,
including "ie":
pierna, invierno (and not quite the [je:] as
in "hierro"!). I believe a
very similar diphtong can be heard in
German "Wien" (Vienna).
As to
"uo", it's more complicated. You hear something similar
in "walk" or
Oceanian placenames ("Wogga Wogga") but "uo" starts with
the same "u" that
can be heard in "pull" and not with "w". If I'm not
mistaken (I don't
speak Italian), the Italian "uomo" or "uovo" are
where the diphtong can be
found in its "pure" form.
It's clear from your examples that it IS
something like [je:], [wo:], but the glide is part of the syllable nucleus,
not of its consonantal onset. It seems, then, that [ie:], [uo:] would be more
appropriate, though choosing either transcription is to a certain extent a
matter of taste. The important thing is that they are 'rising' diphthongs, in
which the initial part is less prominent than the remainder.
>Strangely, the Lithuanian terminology and accent marks are the
>reverse of what is used for other languages.
Let me verify it
with an English example:
"gal" (an acute sign on "a") vs "held" (a
circumflex on "l"; there
may be only a short [e] in the word - a grave
sign?)
That would be the Lithuanian accent marks.
I see what you mean, though the English
speakers on the list probably don't. A brief vowel plus a strongly articulated
and high-pitched [l] is a circumflex, a full-blown vowel with a high tone plus
a low-toned [l] is an acute, and a stressed but short vowel is a grave.
Right?
Piotr