Linguistic Dissection of 7 Annoying Sounds Teenagers Make

[Gray Richardson]

Here are perhaps some fun, unusual sounds to use in your conlang.
James Harbeck at The Week wrote this amusing, yet informative article with phonetic analysis of annoying sounds that teenagers make:

http://theweek.com/article/index/244460 ... age-sounds

There were some new ones for me. I think my favorite is the pulmonic ingressive nasal velar trill.

There is also an accompanying youtube video with a demonstration of each sound. It's worth a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY2R_K3NFPo

[Karinta]

I was thinking, dafuq? A velar trill?

[Radius Solis]

Velar trills are possible - I can produce one - but they are much too difficult to have any utility as a speech sound. It requires a much more forceful expulsion of air than usual to get the soft palate vibrating that far up, and even then, you have to be certain to swallow all possible saliva first or else you just get the sound of bubbling spit.

[Hallow XIII]

Are we sure that's actually a velar trill? Because

A velar trill is impossible because the middle of the tongue and walls of the throat are insufficiently flexible to vibrate in such a manner.

It may just be a voiced velar fricative that sounds more trilly than usual. That said, Palatal Trills are stated to be possible, so.

EDIT: Oh, but wait!

CITATION NEEDED

So, yeah. One unsourced Wikipedia entry vs. Radius. Place your bets, folks!

[Click]

So, yeah. One unsourced Wikipedia entry vs. Radius. Place your bets, folks!

I bet on Radius since I can pronounce it myself. Are velar flaps possible? I think they are, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Ser]

OH MY GAWD

I just tried pronouncing an ingressive velar trill and I could actually make one. It's been a while since the last time I produced a sound entirely new to me. The pressure of the air coming in in that tight space seems enough to make the tongue start trilling against the velum. It's difficult to make though, the lack of flexibility in that part of the tongue is really quite a hindrance.

"Creaky voiced long alveolar glide, with mid-front unrounded vowel and glottal stop" doesn't sound like a good description for something he ends up pronouncing more like [ḭːe̯̰ʔ] and then [ḭːæ̯̰ʔ] (which I guess is "yeh").

Also, what is the last sound, [χʷːːɔ̥ː], even supposed to mean?

[2+3 clusivity]

Oh man. Oh man, oh man. Another trill thread. yyhhHHHES!

Velar trills are possible

I want to take the wind out of your sails so much, BUT . . .

Beyond [attested trills], it is possible to induce vibratory motions of other vocal organs. For example a part of the tongue body may vibrate against the palatal or velar surface. Palatal and velar vibrations of the tongue body are sporadically produced, particularly as transitional phenomena in the release phase of Dorsal stops. A 'double burst' is seen particularly often at the release of a velar stop; this could be said to be a brief trill, but it never appears to be a required articulatory target. . . . Trills of the velum or uvula on an ingressive airstream produce one of the major types of sounds in snoring.

So it seems possible but unused.

I just tried pronouncing an ingressive velar trill and I could actually make one.

Haha, well yes, maybe. Though, who's to say if that isn't really an ingressive uvular trill?

[Radius Solis]

The only wind in my sails is having won the velar trill debate all the way back in 2005, by virtue of having posted a recording, which my opponents at the time seemed to find convincing. I no longer have the file, but I suppose I could do another one sometime, if there is a good reason to. Producing the sound is annoying to do. I wasn't joking about the difficulty, as I was reminded when trying it this morning after my previous post. It didn't even work until like the sixth try, though I did finally get it. The pressure of the airflow and the tension of the tongue have to be exactly right.

[din]

I've been trying to produce a velar trill but my uvula is too dangly, which causes it to lie flat on the root of my tongue and flap against my velum when I exhale. The sound is like a crossover between a jackhammer and a monster truck.

[sound sample] (sorry if this makes you think differently of me)

[2+3 clusivity]

That would be great for some kind of dark/fantasy metal intro.

[Ser]

I just tried pronouncing an ingressive velar trill and I could actually make one.

Haha, well yes, maybe. Though, who's to say if that isn't really an ingressive uvular trill?

Because I can feel the tongue vibrating against the velum, just like when I produce a [r] sound. Like Radius said, the airflow and the tension have to be right, I find the latter especially problematic.

[Qwynegold]

Hmm, now that I was experimenting, I was able to make a laminal trill, i.e. it was the middle of the tongue vibrating rather than the tip, which would be my normal [r]. What POA would this be? The tip was still in the alveolar position just like in [r], but since it was the middle of the tongue vibrating, that point would be somewhere behind the alveolar POA.

[Vardelm]

I heard an interview on NPR this morning with Harbeck. Pretty amusing.