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 �ochtarach; Baile �tha Cliath 2; �ire (Ireland) Guth�in: +353 1 478-2597, +353 1 283-9396 http://www.indigo.ie/egt 27 P�irc an Fh�ithlinn; Baile an Bh�thair; Co. �tha Cliath; �ire
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