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From: clive@druri.UUCP (StewardCN)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: latest ish
Message-ID: <56@druri.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Feb-86 20:42:07 EST
Article-I.D.: druri.56
Posted: Thu Feb  6 20:42:07 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 05:12:48 EST
References: <6333@utzoo.UUCP> <26400001@uiucuxe>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 34

A further note:

In Korean and Japanese, I believe nearly as true in Chinese,
there is _no_ differentiation of the sounds we think of as 
R or L.  It is one sound, which changes from very strong L
to nearing an R depending on what sounds are around it.

Try saying R and moving your whole tongue straight back just a little --
you'll find you have an L very quickly.

In Korean, there is only one letter for this; looks like:

	----------
		  |
	----------
	|
	----------

Sorry it's too big.   In pronouncing this as an alphabet name,
they say (something like) reeool, to show it's range of transition.

Japanese hasn't a phonemic alphabet (two kinds of syllable ones,
though), and I don't think they can write the sound alone.

As a footnote, English speakers generally can't distinguish _any_
of the o-u range vowels in Korean with reliability at all, not to
mention the several values they find in what we think are one
consonant.

Might give an idea just how much trouble it is, and almost everyone in
those countries these days has pretty good English indeed.


Clive Steward