|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
They start out closed. What I said, it's the default position. You don't have to go anywhere to get there. The /oo/ sound is chosen for whatever reason but the /b/ is just default. If we were sitting around with our vela closed we'd maybe say "Gooooooooo!" when voicing disapproval, but we'd have to have a very different throat structure to permit breathing in this condition.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
What I said is that the default position for the human vocal tract is mouth open and no closures anywhere, either at the lips of the velum. You can close your velum and still breathe through your nose.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Good article. I still think the "ease" of certain sounds has more to do with the visibility of articulation. Moving back in the tract from lips to velum.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619 |
the default position for the human vocal tract is mouth open and no closures anywhere
Too often the default position is a fist delivered to an open mouth. It doesn't often provide closure either.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Too often the default position is a fist delivered to an open mouth.
I used to wonder what a truly alien language would be like. Imagining non-vocal tract sounds, or dual ones. I've always been impressed that some folks can use their fingers to shrillify their whistles. Sign language is very interesting from a linguistics POV. Some think it's just a code for an underlying language. Such opinions are frowned upon by signers.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Without being able to provide any references, I know that the grammar of ASL is very different from the grammar of English.
Edit: googling 'asl grammar' provides many sites that look, at first glance, to be quite informative.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
ASL is not signed English. I've looked at it and spoken with both hearing and deaf signer before about it. There is something, taught in schools, called Exact Signed English, which is usually distained by ASLers. One example: you can mention folks, by signing their name, etc., and place them in 3D space before you (the signer). You can then refer (by pointing to the space) to that person. It's like having a bunch of extra third person pronouns. He-sub-1, thru she-sub-2. ASL also has a full and functional morphology which is quite different from English.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
One of the googled sites had an interesting comment: until the late twentieth century many signers of ASL did not know that their language even had a grammar, yet it does, as nuncle says, possess a rich grammar all its own.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Not everybody realizes that all languages (and dialects) have grammars, i.e., languages are rules-based. When somebody says that language X doesn't have a grammar, they usually mean that it doesn't have inflections or has a grammar that is different from their language's grammar.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,322
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
543
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
