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home :: ling :: labiodental-flap-description
2005 Apr 20 (Wed)

labiodental flap description

I read about the introduction of the labiodental flap to the IPA a month or so ago over at Phonoloblog, and I finally read the NY Times article linked to by Language Log. The best part (for me) was Geoff Pullum's description of the symbol representing it:

The new symbol had been recommended by a fellow linguist, Geoff Pullum, who described it "as if a fishhook R had been slammed leftward into a lowercase v so hard its vertical had merged with the right leg of the v, and the dangly bit had been left hanging there like the drain pipe out of an upstairs toilet in a partially demolished building."
I'm still not sure whether or not he was following the Gricean maxims there, but it sure is a good description. I'm still trying to learn how to articulate it myself (video, audio).

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