Re: The Name of the U
McReynolds 
Sun, 11 Jan 1998 18:19:04 -0600

-----Original Message-----
From: Saul Epstein <liberty*uit,net>
To: vulcan-linguistics*shikahr,com,inter,net
<vulcan-linguistics*shikahr,com,inter,net>
Date: Sunday, January 11, 1998 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: The Name of the U

>All right. Here are the names of the English vowel letters, as
>pronounced in English, transcribed, pretty closely, in my Vulcan
>transcription, with vowels instead of approximants where appropriate.
>
>A eeii
>E ii
>I aaii
>O oouu
>U yuu(w)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do we not begin "A", "E", "I", and "O" (and in
fact all vowel-initial words) with a glottal stop in English?  As in
{'eeii}, {'ii}, {'aaii}, and {'oouu}?  For me, an unskilled linguist, it is
very difficult to begin with a vowel and not include a glottal stop.  I have
to imagine an "h" before the vowels and concentrate a lot to not get that
catch in there.  Sort of like how "Hawaii" is really just beginning with an
"a," but they don't pronounce a glottal stop in Hawaiian the way we do.
This may not have relevance, but I just wanted to throw it out there.

-McReynolds