LINGUIST List 6.1136

Sun Aug 20 1995

Sum: German terms for sibilant, etc

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

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1. Alexis Manaster Ramer, Summary: German terms for sibilant, shibilant, etc.

Just the other day I asked if anybody knew the German terms for
sibilant, shibilant, and the category of sound which Russian, Georgian,
etc. linguists know as, in effect, 'sibilant-shibilant' (of which
the Polish s-acute, c-acute, and z-acute, orthographically speaking,
are examples). Peter Daniels noted that older German works on Semitology
do not use any special terms. Carsten Breul reported Sibilant and
Schibilant, and also, for the former, Zischlaut (one wishes it were
*Zisslaut, but languages are only human!). A source off LINGUIST tells
me that a shibilant is also a Rauschlaut, although Carsten tells me this
does not appear to be a widespread usage (but thinks it sounds very
suitable). So, Zischlaut and Rauschlaut it is. But I guess there is
still the problem of the remaining category (which has names in Russian
and Georgian, but not to my knowledge in English, French, OR German).

Maybe we should collectively try to come up with something for each
of these languages?

Alexis Manaster Ramer