LINGUIST List 2.199

Sunday, 5 May 1991

Qs: Glottal stop, Native Am lgs, Plurals, Fonts, Lg in Quebec

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Robert D Hoberman, Glottal Stop
2. Karen Christie, Re: Native American Languages
3. bert peeters, English grammar in verse form
4. Paul Hackney, Phonetic alphabet fonts
5. Margaret Fleck, Language in Quebec

Does anyone know of a language in which the glottal stop is opposed to zero in 
initial position before a vowel? I know of such oppositions at an underlying 
level, but I'm inquiring about a surfacy phonemic level: is there a language in 
which [?V....] and [V....] can signal different words? The same opposition at 
the end of a word is unproblematic and I suspect fairly common in languages 
with phonemic glottal stop; for instance, some varieties of Palestinian Arabic, 
in which a glottal stop can appear in any position "regular" consonants can 
appear in, have [wara] 'behind', [wara?] 'leaves; paper'. Why is the opposite 
(initial) case so rare, if not nonexistent?

Bob Hoberman

For those who are familiar with Native American languages: Does anyone know if
navajo or any native american language is now being formally taught in the
schools?

Also, I'd like to know about situations in which a language without a written
form is used as a language of instruction......

Thanks

Thanks to Bruce Nevin for posting that mighty piece of English "poetry" on
how to pronounce English words. As a non-native speaker, I must say I did
manage to enjoy it, and I'll use it as a defense against any of my students
who will try to tell me that French is a difficult language!
By the way, could anyone provide me with the text and the authorship details
of another comparable piece (not quite as long) on intricacies of English
plurals? I remember seeing this piece many years ago and I would like to find
it back. I reckon it must be relatively well known to insiders - but I'm not
one of those.
Thanks for your help.
Bert Peeters <peeterstasman.cc.utas.edu.au>

I read Leslie Burkholder's request for a Phonetic alphabet font for the IBM PC
with interest. I too would be interested in fonts for the following:

 IBM PC (VGA), EPSON LQ-850, and DEC VT320 (or compatible)

Paul Hackney.

To Jonathan Bobaljik and Julie Auger: 
 I wasn't intending to take a stand on whether different dialects of
French or English are different languages, nor on whether that
question is even well-defined. Rather, I was hoping people who have
done fieldwork with some of the stranger dialects would comment on the
real extent of the divergences among them.

 In particular, I was hoping someone could say something concrete
about the extent of differences between English dialects other than
the obvious superficial phonetic and open-class vocabulary
differences. Such differences might include differences in syntax
(both allowable constructions and also what they mean), phonology,
morphology, systematic patterns in lexical entries, and closed-class
vocabulary. It is easy to point to individual examples of small
differences even between British and American newscaster standards,
but how extensive are such differences between more divergent
dialects? And how extensive are the differences in open-class
vocabulary?

 "one has to make sure that the varieties compared are compatible;
that is, one must not compare academic European French with informal
working-class Quebec French!" -- Julie Auger

 Why not? 

Margaret Fleck (fleckrobots.oxford.ac.uk)

[End Linguist List, Vol. 2, No. 199]