Can this be done with stops?Elkar?l grammar wrote: Where we might use stress to emphasize a constituent, Elkar?l uses length, for both vowels and consonants.
My guess would be that words like qqmit, which is an example of the prefix q- meaning repeat once, would be pronounced with separate releases for the stops. Vowels should always be drawn out, but fricative consonants fall somewhere in the middle.
You can say -khkhkhkh as one long velar fricative, but you can also say it cyclically, so to speak, giving a little more emphasis on each consonant with either increased breath or a little change in the position of the articulators. This leads then to the question of whether the elcari think of the above as one long consonant or several short ones squeezed together?
Are there words which would have a stop that is held for a longer time for emphasis and then released? The words qqqmit and qqqqmit would be really hard to tell apart with only one release, which was what prompted me to ask. (This is my human perception, OC.)
I love this language. There are so many great ideas in it.