Could you help me solve this phonetic riddle?

Question

From the position for normal breathing, you move your soft palate upwards and shut off the
nasal cavity.
Then you round your lips, leaving a rather close air passage there, and at the same time, you
raise the back part of your tongue pretty high towards the roof of the mouth cavity, but not
touching it, thus leaving a rather narrow air passage in the back part of your mouth cavity.
You breathe out, letting your vocal cords vibrate.
Wait a minute! You’ve just pronounced a /__/ sound !
Then you lower the tongue, particularly its front part, to a very open position, never stopping
the vocal cord vibration. Then, after about 60 msec. or so, you move the front to central
part of your tongue towards the position which is just above the close-mid.

Decapitated Soul · Answer

I can only help with the first paragraph,from there on, it's outside my pay bracket

From the position for normal breathing, you move your soft palate upwards and shut off the nasal cavity.

It means the sound is an oral sound, not nasal

Then you round your lips

So labialised (consonant) or rounded (vowel) sound

leaving a rather close air passage there

It's certainly not a vowel; it may either be a fricative or an approximant

and at the same time, you raise the back part of your tongue pretty high towards the roof of the mouth cavity, but not touching it, thus leaving a rather narrow air passage in the back part of your mouth cavity.

If it's the back of the mouth, it could be velar or even uvular, but it's unclear

You breathe out, letting your vocal cords vibrate

It means the sound is voiced, not voiceless

Could you help me solve this phonetic riddle?

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question