Actually, there is a question I'd like to
ask the list. It is about so-called ludlings, as linguists call them, or
'secret languages' (word-transforming games like Pig Latin). They often reveal
interesting things about intuitive phonological analysis. One ludling that was
popular among Polish children when I was a schoolboy consists in the following
vowel-splitting transformation:
V --> VgV for all
vowels.
For example, <stary hipopotam> 'old
hippo' --> <stagarygy higipogopogotagam>.
The game would not work in English too
well, but it could be imitated in any language in which vowel quality is not
influenced by stress, e.g. in Spanish:
<bueno tiempo> -->
<bueguenogo tieguempogo>, I presume.
Now, what's interesting here is that the
Polish nasal vowels spelt <a,> and <e,> (with a cedilla-like
diacritic) -- often described as nasal [o~] and nasal [e~], but actually
realised as diphthongs (in which the second element may be analysed as an
allophonic variant of a nasal consonant) -- become -ogoN-/-egeN- rather than
-oNgoN-/-eNgeN-. This supports a biphonemic /VN/ interpretation of Polish nasal
vowels.
The game also sheds some light on the
phonemic status of the Polish vowels spelt <i> (pronounced [i]) and
<y> (a high central vowel), which are in more-or-less complementary
distribution. The fact that -i- is transformed into -igi- and -y- into -ygy-
(though -gy- does not normally occur in Polish) suggests that speakers treat
these sounds as distinct phonemes.
My question is: are there any traditional
ludlings in your native languages? and if so, are there any interesting
phonological phenomena involved in their production?
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: [phoNet] Hello?
I hope it isn't. The members are still
there. Anyone's welcome to start a new discussion any time.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 4:27 PM
Subject: [phoNet] Hello?
Is this list dead?
Adam