Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 May 29

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May 29

Vowel questions

1. Is there any language where the /a/ sound is definitely a front vowel, so that it participates with other front vowels in palatalization of /k/ and /g/ sounds?
2. Is there any Slavic, Romance or Celtic languages with back unrounded vowels (including /ɑ/, other than Bulgarian)?
3. Is there any Slavic language with front rounded vowels?
4. Why is Japanese /u/ sound actually unrounded /ɯ/?

--40bus (talk) 16:43, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

"Why" questions about language are generally silly, but the last one really stands out in this respect.  --Lambiam 09:32, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

1: There are many languages with a contrast between /a/ and /ɑ/, differing only in frontness, so I'd say that in such languages /a/ is definitely a front vowel. That doesn't mean it participates with other front vowels in palatalisation of /k/ and /g/ sounds. The language may not have palatalisation, or no /k/ and /g/ sounds. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:37, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

And are there any such languages with only one open vowel? --40bus (talk) 17:01, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

We may note that French regularly palatalized c /k/ (to ch /ʃ/) before Latin a. —Tamfang (talk) 04:07, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

So did Albanian, to q /c/ 82.166.199.42 (talk) 07:54, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

As for #1, Arabic: The analogous phenomenon of palatalized /k/ (existing in Russian), is the phenomenon of non-emphatic /k/ existing in Arabic. Actually, /k/ in Arabic is the non-emphatic performance of an analogous Arabic consonant denoted by /q/ in IPA. When being non-emphatic, /k/ has an impact on the near vowels, including /a/, which is performed as a front vowel, as opposed to the opposite impact of the analogous emphatic consonant /q/ whose neighboring /a/ is performed as a back vowel. However, the distinction between both ways of performing the /a/ in Arabic, is not reflected by orthography, which only reflects the distinction between the non-emphatic consonant /k/ and the emphatic consonant /q/. That's because the distinction between the two ways of performing /a/ is not an "official" phenomenon, but rather exists in spoken language only. I Hope this helps. 2A06:C701:744A:F00:8F:AA20:5738:FCD9 (talk) 07:40, 4 June 2023 (UTC)