Re: kra

From: Michael Everson (everson@indigo.ie)
Date: Thu Dec 05 1996 - 19:00:33 EST


At 14:29 3.12.96, Ken Whistler spake:

>The kra (basically a squat small-caps k) had a certain
>cachet among linguists at the very end of the 19th century
>and early in the 20th century, largely as a result of the
>very fine linguistic work done by German and Danish Eskimaulogists
>in producing definitive studies of the Eskimo languages.
>It was used to represent the uvular stop, now generally
>transcribed [q], as distinct from the velar stop [k].

Interestingly, the name KRA's name is very much based on Danish phonetics.
The uvular /r/ in Danish is much further back in the throat than the French
or German uvular /r/ is -- and so when a Dane says /kRa/ it sounds almost
exactly like the /qa/ it is intended to represent.

Is it "basically a squat small-caps k"? I've seen it set with the
little-bit-curlier-than-Latin Cyrillic ka.

--
Michael Everson, Everson Gunn Teoranta
15 Port Chaeimhghein Íochtarach; Baile Átha Cliath 2; Éire (Ireland)
Gutháin:  +353 1 478-2597, +353 1 283-9396
http://www.indigo.ie/egt
27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn; Baile an Bhóthair; Co. Átha Cliath; Éire



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