8 odd sounds from other languages you could never make except you probably already have

My latest article for TheWeek.com has been posted today:

8 bizarre sounds you’ve probably made without knowing it
And their prevalence in several foreign languages

theweek.com/article/index/241811/8-bizarre-sounds-youve-probably-made-without-knowing-it

(Please note that I don’t make up the captions for the photos. Where it says an uvular trill I would recommend reading a uvular trill.)

Watch a video of me reading it and making the sounds:

5 responses to “8 odd sounds from other languages you could never make except you probably already have

  1. Interesting stuff! Though you lost my husband (an Icelander) and me (an Icelandic transplant) on that pulmonic ingressive voiceless lateral fricative business and how it connects with Icelandic. You gave an example from Welsh—do you have an example from Icelandic, too? Or are you just loosely referring to the talking-while-inhaling thing that Icelanders do so charmingly?

    • I was referring not to the inhaling part but to the voiceless lateral fricative part – actually, in Icelandic, it’s more of an affricate: I mean the sound you make when you say the ll in fill, bill, jökull, etc. It’s a little smoother in Welsh.

  2. Aha, it all makes sense now. I was too hung up on the ingressive bit. Yes, that -ll is certainly a fun sound (and thanks to Eyjafjallajökull, a notorious one!).

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