 Chinantec
of Mexico
Amazing Features of Spoken Language
SIL linguists Frank and Ethel Robbins discovered that you do not
have to open your mouth to say certain things in Quiotepec Chinantec--though
a lot is also said by opening the mouth, like the rest of the world
does.
This is hard on lip-readers.
"I bet you can't write this word!"
Here are some of the words spoken without opening the mouth. Numbers
1-4 represent tones from high to low, "?" means a catch
in the throat, "h" is breathed out through the nose:
| |
hmh3,2 |
'water' |
| |
hm1 |
'blood' |
| |
?mh3 |
'new' |
| |
m?3 |
'pill' |
| |
mh?3,2 |
'snake' |
| |
mh4,3 |
'I ask for' |
| |
?m?h4,3 |
'I pinch' |
| |
?m?1,3 |
'underbrush' |
But this unusual feature revealed no novel phoneme. It is a "subphonemic"
occurrence. There is actually a vowel involved, but when it follows "m,"
it is silent in Chinantec.
[Previous] [ Home
Site Index About
Galleries People
Scripts ] [Next]
Send questions or comments about this site to WebMaster.
Questions or comments about the museum should go to info@jaars.org.
Copyright © 1999-2008 JAARS Museum of the Alphabet. |
