LINGUIST List 6.1158

Sat Aug 26 1995

Qs: Click, Glamour, Ling for teens, Models of perception

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

Directory

1. Joseph P Stemberger, Q: click features
2. Richard Hudson, GLAMOUR from GRAMMAR?
3. karen stanley, linguistics for teenagers
4. Patrick Crehan, non-linear models of auditory perception

Can anyone tell me what phonological features are being used these days
to distinguish clicks from regular stops?

As I recall, SPE just treated them as velarized stops, and a common thing
these days is to consider a dental click to have both [Coronal] and
[Dorsal] articulator nodes. The fact that there's low oral pressure in
the click seems to be viewed as a phonetic fact more than a phonological
one by many phonologists.

But that has a potential problem with the bilabial click, since the
labiovelar stop [kp] is also just [Labial,Dorsal]. If any language has
both [kp] and a bilabial click, some additional feature is needed.
(Are there languages with both? If not, I guess it's not a problem.)
(If there are languages with both, what are people using to distinguish
them?)

And if some phonologists are using some special features to characterize
clicks in general, what are they?

Thanks, from a non-africanist

- -Joe Stemberger
 University of Minnesota

At least one etymological dictionary (Partridge's Origins) says that GLAMOUR
is based on GRAMMAR. Can I trust it/him? And if so, what about that `L' -
why R > L?

Incidentally, Partridge says the following:

"Glamo(u)r" was vogue'd [sic] by Scott for `magic, a magical charm': on the
basis of "grammar" in the sense usually attached to obsolete "gram(m)arye":
`magic, occult science', powers often, in medieval times, attributed to the
learned.

I very much hope the etymology IS right (otherwise I've been misleading
generations of students ...), but I'd love to be able to explain the L when
eyebrows go up.

Prof Richard Hudson Tel: +44 171 387 7050 ext 3152
 E-mail: r.hudsonling.ucl.ac.uk
Dept. of Phonetics and Linguistics Tel: +44 171 380 7172
 Fax: +44 171 383 4108
UCL
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
UK

For five years, I tutored (acting as in-loco-English-speaking-parentis)
a young (now 14) Japanese girl. For several months before she went back
to Japan earlier this year, we talked a lot about linguistics. She is
very interested in this as a possible future career direction, so I
promised her I would look for a book about linguistics that was at her
level. (At this point, she would need English, not Japanese.)
No one I have thus far asked about this seems to know of a textbook on
linguistics that would be appropriate for teenagers/high school. If
anyone has a suggestion, I would appreciate it.
Karen Stanley
e: karenhsunivscvm.csd.scarolina.edu

I am working on a non-linear signal processing technique
which might have application in the field of auditory perception.

I would like to locate sources of information and/or
experimental data in the area of acoustic/auditory phonetics.

My own background is in mathematical physics and I would
be grateful for any help received. I will of course post a summary
to the list of there is any interest.

Thanks in advance!
Pat(rick Crehan)
- --------------------------------------------------
Patrick Crehan
Dept. of Mathematical Physics
University College Dublin
- ---------------------------------------------------