R> An example I usually see in Semitic Transliteration: The Arabic
R> letters kha and ghain are usually romanized by underbarred digraphs
R> kh and gh, respectively [...] to indicate laryngeal(-ized) phonemes
R> (laryngeal fricatives kh, gh in Hebrew, Arabic, and languages using
R> Arabic script;
As I understand it, the point of double underbarring these is to
distinguish "kh" from separate "k" + "h"; for example, the
Encyclopaedia of Islam also transliterates Arabic sheen with
underbarred "sh" to distinguish it from "s" + "h", where there is no
laryngealization at all
R> however, laryngealized sibilants s,/i>, z occur in Farsi,
R> Urdu, and most others of those languages [in Classical Arabic, they
R> appear as interdental fricatives th, dh]);
They are not laryngealized in these languages; instead, Arabic
interdentals get pronounced as ordinary [s] or [z] respectively in
Arabic loans to Farsi, Urdu etc. The transliteration comes from the
same ZDMG system where the Arabic interdentals in Arabic are
transliterated as t and d with combining macron below, U+1E6F and
U+1E0F. In order to be able to reconstruct the Arabic orthography in
these nouns, but to also reflect the Persian pronunciation, the ZDMG
recommends to use s and z with combining macron below (U+0073 U+0331
and U+1E95). Laryngealization (pharyngealization, actually) gets
represented with a combining dot below in ZDMG transliteration.
There's a short paper on Arabic transliteration by yours truly at
http://www.orientasia.uni-bonn.de/downloads/arab_trans.pdf, with an
overview of the most common systems. ZDMG gets explained in detail
because it's what we use at our university :-)
R> a laryngeal resonant h also exists (please tell me in what
R> languages that laryngeal 'h' would be found as a distinct phoneme}.
Well, laryngeal "h" is a problem because our common [h] is laryngeal
already. Arabic has an additional epiglottal, "hard" h-sound: "ha"
(U+062D) of course, usually transliterated by U+1E25 (LATIN SMALL
LETTER H WITH DOT BELOW). Arabic "kha" is transliterated by U+1E2B
(LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH BREVE BELOW) in the ZDMG transliteration
system used in Germany and most of Eastern Europe; on systems without
the BREVE BELOW is not available, this often gets transliterated with
a macron below: U+0068 U+0331, maybe you mean this.
As far as the "distinct phonemes" are concerned, there appears to
exist at least one Caucasian language that has contrasting pharyngeal,
epiglottal and laryngeal "h" sounds (IPA U+0266, U+029C and U+0068,
respectively, IIRC). Mail me off-list if you need a reference.
On a side note, this e-mail really convinced me that I need a
Unicode-capable mail client.
Philipp
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