IPA Confusion

[Nessimon]

Firstly, one of my favorite pages to learn IPA: http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/

Secondly, when it comes to the [c]. The [c] sound is to my ears very different from [ʦ]. The palatal plosive ([c]) occurs naturally in my dialect of Norwegian, and as I said, sounds very different from [ʦ]. Therefore it would make a lot of difference if you are supposed to say [c]. Are there any solid conclusions?

[Taronyu]

I think we all agreed that they are quite different, and that [c] has no place in Na'vi phonology or phonetics.

[Nessimon]

Irayo!

That was my understanding too.

But then for another question, according to Wikipedia (and Paul Frommer on the Language Log) u could either be realized as (u) or [ʊ]. How do we know when to use which? Any examples?

My apologies in advance if this question already has been asked!

PS: (u) = u in brackets.

[Taronyu]

We don't know. That's his only mention of it. Annoying, huh.

[Nessimon]

Very annoying indeed, and strange...

For a language to have only one allophone, is very strange. Like one would assume that a word like tompa (rain), would be realized as [tomba] (two labial stops), especially since it would make no difference in meaning. But hey, it wouldn't be Na'vi if it wasn't a little strange;)

[Taronyu]

That does happen in some places. not all the time. I forget where, I've marked it down....