Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: librik@netcom.com (David Librik)
Subject: Re: Laadan language
Message-ID: <librikD774vB.6FH@netcom.com>
Organization: Icy Waters Underground, Inc.
References: <D74oLH.DKx@freenet.carleton.ca>
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 20:28:22 GMT
Lines: 21
Sender: librik@netcom18.netcom.com

ac355@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (David Solly) writes:

>	Could someone tell me if the pitch difference between two vowels
>where one has a pitch and the other not is done as a glide or is there a
>distinct break between the two vowels?

In Elgin's pronunciation, it is a glide between two (shorter than usual)
vowels, producing an effect very much like English stressed vowel + offglide.

She seems to have washed her hands of Laadan lately, concluding that since
it didn't take off, women must not be aware of the fact that they need their
own language, or have decided that there are other problems that must be
solved first.  I've never seen any indication that the "gaps" in "male
English" were anything more than lexical, and really required an entire new
grammar.  One woman recently wrote to her and pointed out that a language
with Evidentials (clitic particles that mark the source and veracity of
the information in a sentence), like Laadan, is unlikely to catch on, because
there's a lot of power in not saying why you know something.

- David Librik
librik@cs.Berkeley.edu
