Sorry for the
delayed response. Thanks David for taking time to
reply.
I've
uploaded the file as you requested with /aɭ˕a/ /aɭ˕ːa/ (produced by two different
speakers in quick succession) to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phoNet/files/ under
the filename "aXa aXXa.zip" (it unzips into a .wav file playable by windows
media player).
I
tried using the "lowered" diacritic under the retroflex lateral but it was
interfering with the downward retroflex hook, so I stuck it to the side (for the
moment, while Arial Unicode MS ameliorates). :)
Please
let me know if the description "lowered retroflex lateral" would characterise
this sound. How about "voiced retroflex lateral fricative"?
Have
fun,
Rohit
I sent the following message over five hours ago, but it
has
yet to appear and so I'm resending. I apologize if the
list should end up
with duplicates.
David
--- In phoNet@yahoogroups.com, "Rohit
Dasari" <rdasari@m...> wrote:
>
> Um. Is this group
alive?
Alive, but, if like me, probably not sure about the exact
nature of the the Tamil sound in question.
As best as I can
remember, from the last time I had one of
Bhadriraju Krishnamurti's books in
hand, the sound is a
reflex of a Proto-Dravidian voiced apico-alveolar
fricative
(written as an underdotted 'z'), but that is not supposed
to
be its present realization. The book included varying
descriptions of the
modern sound from more than one author,
and I don't remember which one, if
any, that Krishnamurthi
preferred.
If the sound is indeed a
"semivocalic (open) counterpart
of the retroflex lateral /L/" then I suppose
it could be
written with the I.P.A. as a retroflex lateral approximant
with the diacritic for lowering beneath it.
Refer to the "CONSONANTS
(PULMONIC)" table at
http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/images/ipachart.gif
, where
the "retroflex" column intersects the "lateral approximant"
row,
for the symbol for a retroflex lateral, which resembles
an 'l' with a tail
descending below the line. The diacritic
for lowering can be found in the
tenth row, second column
of the table of diacritics, and looks like the
bottom half
of a + sign.
However I wonder, if there's no
contact of the tongue with
the roof of the mouth during this sound, whether
it's proper
to refer to, or write, it as a lateral of any sort?
I
second the request that a native speaker of Tamil upload
a recording of the
sound, preferably at normal speed between
two 'a'-s ("aLa"), as well as
drawn out ("aLLLLLLLLLLLLa").
David