Velarized Laminal Alveolar Approximant of Danish

The Danish language has a sound that does not occur in any other language. It is the velarized laminal alveolar approximant. In Danish spelling it is a d and it always occurs between vowels and in the syllable coda. 

The velarized laminal alveolar approximant occurs in the following words:

chokolade (chocolate)

fløde (cream)

fod (foot)

gade (street)

mad (foot)

møde (meeting)

sød (sweet)

tid (time)

uden (without)

ørred (trout)

The velarized laminal alveolar approximant of Danish is often compared to the voiced interdental fricative of English. However, the two sounds are quite different. The Danish sound is not a fricative but an approximant. It is not produced with the tip of the tongue but with the blade, and the tongue is raised towards the velum. Another difference is that the tongue makes contact with the alveolar ridge rather than with the teeth.

One of the most distinctive sounds of Danish is the velarized laminal alveolar approximant. It occurs in many Danish words. The velarized laminal alveolar approximant is a unique sound which occurs in no other language.

Finnish Colour Adjectives in Singular and Plural

Finnish colour adjectives are inflected for number. They have different forms before singular and plural nouns. However, not all of them are inflected the same. A few follow a distinct pattern. Let us illustrate with examples.

In the following sentences the difference between singular and plural is regular:

The black car is new. Musta auto on uusi.

The black cars are new. Mustat autot ovat uusia.

The green car is new. Vihreä auto on uusi.

The green cars are new. Vihreät autot ovat uusia.

The suffix -t is the plural marker for both the adjective and the noun. In the second sentence, uusia has a different form because it is not in nominative case but in partitive. The partitive case is a very productive case in Finnish.

Compare the previous sentences with the following.

The blue car is new. Sininen auto on uusi.

The blue cars are new. Siniset autot ovat uusia.

The white car is new. Valkoinen auto on uusi.

The white cars are new. Valkoiset autot ovat uusia.

The red car is new. Punainen auto on uusi.

The red cars are new. Punaiset autot ovat uusia.

The yellow car is new. Keltainen auto on uusi.

The yellow cars are new. Keltaiset auto ovat uusia.

With this set of colour adjectives, we also see the suffix -t to mark the plural. However, another change occurs. The penultimate nasal changes to an alveolar plosive. This sound change can be illustrated with the rule /n/ → /s/. 

It may be that the change is an example of partial assimilation. The /n/ is a nasal but the /s/ and the /t/ are plosives. According to this analysis, the sound change is a partial assimilation in the manner of articulation.

Finnish adjectives are inflected for number. This can be illustrated with the colour adjectives. However, they inflect in two ways. One group of colour adjectives follows the regular pattern of plural inflection, but the other group does not.

The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis is a short story by Franz Kafka. It was first published in 1915 and is among his best-known works. The short story has many interpretations.

In the story, Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman and cloth merchant, wakes up one morning and finds himself transformed into a monstrous insect. On his back and unable to leave his bed, he reflects on his life. He concludes that it is full of temporary and changing human relationships which are never sincere. He does not like his employer and would gladly quit his job if he were not the sole income earner, who is working hard to erase his bankrupt father's debts.

While trying to move, he learns that his office manager has come to check on him, upset about Gregor's unexcused absence. He attempts to communicate with both his office manager and his family, but all they can hear is incomprehensible noises. Gregor struggles to cross the floor and open the door. When his office manager sees the transformed Gregor, he leaves the apartment. Gregor's family is horrified, and his father forces him back into his room.

With Gregor's sudden transformation, the family faces financial difficulty. Gregor is locked in his room, and he begins to adapt to his new body. His sister Grete is the only one who brings him food, but Gregor only likes it if it is rotten. He spends much of his time crawling on the floor, walls and ceiling.

His father, mother and sister all get jobs and start to neglect Gregor, who now eats very little. They decide to use Gregor's room for storage and rent one room in the apartment to three male tenants. The tenants are not told about Gregor, who feels very lonely. One day, Gregor is attracted to the music of Grete's violin and leaves his room, which is not closed properly. He is seen by the tenants, and they complain about the dirty apartment, say they are leaving and will not pay anything for the time they have stayed.

Grete, who is tired of taking care of Gregor, complains that they must get rid of him, or they will be financially ruined. Gregor, fully aware that he is no longer wanted, goes back to his room with great effort and dies of starvation before sunrise. When his family learns the news, the father, mother and sister all take the day off work. They make plans to move to a smaller apartment to save money. Grete has grown into a pretty young woman and they think about finding her a husband.

Gregor's metamorphosis results in feelings of isolation, sadness and rejection. His family depends on him, but when he can no longer work, he feels he is a burden. However, another metamorphosis occurs when Grete changes from a young girl into a pretty woman and the family decides to find her a husband. 

Another interpretation of the story is that Gregor's transformation into a gigantic insect is merely a dream. He is not happy with his life and wants to escape from it. The insect symbolizes that he does not feel connected to his family or to the society in which he lives.

Belizean Spanish

Though English is the official language of Belize, a large percentage of the population speaks Spanish. It is perhaps not surprising because the country has Spanish-speaking neighbours. They are Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south.

In Belizean Spanish the /s/ in syllable-coda position is often weakened to /h/. This is a typical feature of Caribbean Spanish. The consonants /b/, /d/ and /g/ are not realized as fricatives intervocalically but rather as plosives. This is not the case in most Spanish dialects. The syllable-coda /r/ can be pronounced as an approximant.

Belizean Spanish is similar to many varieties of Caribbean Spanish. This is evident in the aspiration of the /s/ in the syllable-coda. However, the pronunciation of /b/, /d/ and /g/ as plosives in intervocalic position is a feature which does not occur in most dialects of Spanish.