[B-Greek] Pronunciation of Upsilon

Louis Sorenson llsorenson at hotmail.com
Wed Oct 15 23:21:04 EDT 2008


Hello all again, 

I'm a little confused on the pronunciation of upsilon.  Here are the suggestions given by some people.

Vasile STANCU: Prepare yourself to say "u" as in "bull" and set your lips accordingly;
- with the lips arranged in this setting, suddenly change your mind and say
"i" as in "bit";

Fr Patrick B. O'Grady: Make an (American) oo sound with your tongue, but
stretch your lips as though making an ee sound! This is how I trained my
former German students.


Emmanuel: There's an easier way, say "i" like in "it" and simply round your lips,
 the final sound is [y]. In french, it's the sound that most of the english
 speaking people struggle with.  

Louis (me): I have always understood that I should round my lips when I say "oo", like 
in the word 'you', and while keeping my lips rounded (i.e. 'freezing my lips')
 then say [i] like in 'beat' or 'meet'.  

It seems all the above suggestions use a "lower" vowel or a less stressed vowel: 
"bull" = English short "u" like in "but", "i" as in "bit" or  "oo" like in "foot".
 These are three different suggestions and my understanding is a fourth. 
All agree that the lips should be rounded, but the coloring of the vowel is in question.
 So what is it? Correct me if any of the following signs are incorrect.
	IPA [i] (like 'meet') with rounding (Greek was heading in this direction)
	IPA [u]  (like 'bull') with rounding = [ɔ]
	IPA [u:] (like 'boot') with rounding 
	IPA [i] (like 'hit') with rounding = ?[I]

It seems most of the suggestions sound like an ?unstressed? (bull, boot, hit) rather 
than ?stressed? sound (you, leaf). 
 
http://weston.ruter.net/projects/ipa-chart/view/keyboard/

ø	
  248	
  00F8	
  front close-mid roundedœ	
  339 
  0153	
  front open-mid roundedɶ	
  630	
  0276	
  front open roundedʉ	
  649	
  0289	
  close central roundedʏ	
  655	
  028F	
  lax close front roundedɔ	
  596	
  0254	
  open-mid back rounded
Looking
at the chart at http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/vowels.html, I see there
are three possible "front rounded" vowels: [y], [Y] and [ø]. Which of
these is the correct  IPA pronunciation and are there any sound files
available for the correct sound, with a number of different words.
Also, is what would be the best and most up to date book on phonology
which has a good description of these sounds.

Louis Sorenson

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