I always learn so much from your posts, Klaus! And your example of crab-like creatures reminds me of the time I was at an aquarium and noticed that from above, carp, penguins, and otters look the same. Convergent evolution among three phyla!
I find consonants much more interesting, so I haven't written much about vowels. None of my articles have even mentioned the Great Vowel Shift! What about vowel length do you have in mind?
Just how in some languages, different vowels have different lengths in the sense of actual time they spend in your mouth. I've been thinking about this because of the poem Emily and I translated, which makes use of this - like the word "Traktat" in German being pronounced something like "trak-taat," where the second vowel is the same sound but fully twice the length. In English we call some vowels "long" and "short," like the difference between the a in cat and the a in ape. But that's not the same thing - I'd call those two entirely different sounds. The second one's just a diphthong.
Rilke was a classicist, and he often used German rules of vowel length to mimic Ancient Greek meter, which also depended heavily on vowel length. So it made me wonder whether there are patterns to which languages maintain a distinct long/short vowel set, and which ones, like English, have it in a more vestigial way.
That's interesting. I've read that some languages even have three vowel lengths, so a word like "pin" could have three different meanings depending on how long the that middle ihh is held. That's pretty crazy.
But given my focus on English, I haven't really thought much about vowel length. One thing that does keep me up at night, though, is why Canadian rising only occurs before unvoiced consonants.
I always learn so much from your posts, Klaus! And your example of crab-like creatures reminds me of the time I was at an aquarium and noticed that from above, carp, penguins, and otters look the same. Convergent evolution among three phyla!
I for one can't wait to evolve into a crab.
Any plans to do an article on vowel length??
I find consonants much more interesting, so I haven't written much about vowels. None of my articles have even mentioned the Great Vowel Shift! What about vowel length do you have in mind?
Just how in some languages, different vowels have different lengths in the sense of actual time they spend in your mouth. I've been thinking about this because of the poem Emily and I translated, which makes use of this - like the word "Traktat" in German being pronounced something like "trak-taat," where the second vowel is the same sound but fully twice the length. In English we call some vowels "long" and "short," like the difference between the a in cat and the a in ape. But that's not the same thing - I'd call those two entirely different sounds. The second one's just a diphthong.
Rilke was a classicist, and he often used German rules of vowel length to mimic Ancient Greek meter, which also depended heavily on vowel length. So it made me wonder whether there are patterns to which languages maintain a distinct long/short vowel set, and which ones, like English, have it in a more vestigial way.
That's interesting. I've read that some languages even have three vowel lengths, so a word like "pin" could have three different meanings depending on how long the that middle ihh is held. That's pretty crazy.
But given my focus on English, I haven't really thought much about vowel length. One thing that does keep me up at night, though, is why Canadian rising only occurs before unvoiced consonants.