From: Peter T. Daniels
Message: 2594
Date: 2004-06-19
>Stupid book.
> On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 13:54:18 -0400, Peter T. Daniels
> <grammatim@...> wrote:
>
> > Catford, Intro to Practical Phonetics (or maybe it's Practical Intro to
> > Phonetics); there was a 2nd ed. fairly recently. Gives excellent
> > instructions for producing all those weird sounds by yourself. (Though
> > having a teacher is better.)
>
> Ah; second time that's been recommended. Must do it...
> I once had a book that recommended practicing silently!
> As to a teacher, maybe occasional sessions with a tutor might work.I was thinking more that Fuji and Hirohito start with the same phoneme.
> (Reminds me that there's tuition money available for elders here.)
>
> > "Velar" means back of the oral cavity. I think the velum is what the
> > uvula dangles from; the velar consonants are forward of the uvular
> > consonants.
>
> > Japanese phonetics sometimes don't sound much like what you'd expect
> > from the phonemic transcriptions.
>
> One simple example: It seems that their "u" is much like the German
> u-umlaut.