Roger Mills wrote:

>Gregory Gadow wrote:
> > In it's writing system, my conlang, Glörsa, has two tables giving its
> > consonants, one voiced and one unvoiced. In the unvoiced table is the
> > unvoiced glottal fricative, [h]. The table of voiced consonants has a
> > voiced equivalent, which I've been transcribing as w. Phonetically, I've
> > been thinking of this sound as the open-mid back rounded vowel, [V]. But
> > looking at the IPA charts, I found that there is, in fact, a voiced
> > glottal fricative, [h\]. So: what is the difference in pronounciation
> > between [V] and [h\]?
>
>It's difficult for English speakers to segment out, even though we often
>produce it in casual speech. Have you checked out the various IPA sites
>with
>sound samples??

Yeah, you could go to http://sivanataraja.free.fr/api/

It's in French but you can understand the board, it's only sad that there
are no sound samples for modified sounds (aspiration, nasalisation, tones)
and that it only has a very few clicks

[...]
> > And just out of curiosity, what is the technical difference between a
> > vowel and a consonant? Is it just a difference in how syllables are
> > constructed, to where a vowel and consonant can actually have the same
> > sound but get used (and therefore classed) differently?
>
>It has to do with (a) at least some constriction in the vocal tract for
>consonants vs. none for vowels and (b) ability to function as a syllable
>peak. Both of these together serve to distinguish [w/u] and [j/i].  Of
>course, it's quite difficult to define "syllable" in phonetic terms....;-(

Yes, and more if you think that a syllable can be formed with a syllabic
consonnant and that /dv=g/, /qh=m_o/, or /ws=/ are also syllables

- Max