Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The now final forms ן ץ ף ך predate their non-final counterparts; They were the default forms used in any position within a word. Their descender eventually bent forwards when preceding another letter to facilitate writing. [citation needed] A final form of these letters is also called pshuta (פשוטה , meaning extended or plain).
Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Quebec French, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in final position (at the end of a word) become voiceless before voiceless consonants and in pausa.
The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced differently when occurring in different positions within a word. For instance, gh represents /f/ at the end of some words (tough / t ʌ f /) but not in others (plough / p l aʊ /). At the beginning of syllables, gh is pronounced /ɡ/, as in ghost / ɡ oʊ s t /.
This voicing of /f/ is a relic of Old English, at a time when the unvoiced consonants between voiced vowels were 'colored' by an allophonic voicing rule /f/ → [v]. As the language became more analytic and less inflectional, final vowels or syllables stopped being pronounced.
May have no audible release [p̚, b̚, t̚, d̚, k̚, ɡ̚] in the word-final position. [27] [28] These allophones are more common in North America than Great Britain. [27] Almost always have a masked release before another plosive or affricate (as in rubbed [ˈɹʌˑb̚d̥]), i.e. the release of the first stop is made after the closure of the ...
Aspirated consonants are not always followed by vowels or other voiced sounds. For example, in Eastern Armenian, aspiration is contrastive even word-finally, and aspirated consonants occur in consonant clusters. In Wahgi, consonants are aspirated only when they are in final position.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
[ç, x] are allophones of /h/ in syllable-final position after front and back vowels, respectively. Based on evidence from Old English and Modern English, /l/ and /r/ apparently had velarised counterparts or allophones [lˠ] and [rˠ]. These occurred after back vowels or the consonant /w/.