Confused on pronunciations

[Eywayä Nantang]

Im just a little confused on the exact pronunciation of Tsmukan- Brother and other words with the Tsm beginning

[omängum fra'uti]

It is like saying "Its" without the "ih" at the start.

[Quzac]

So like

Ts-mu-kan

or Ts-muk(Pause)-an?

Or the like?

[Doolio]

no pause. for instance, listen to neytiri when she's delivering coup de gras to nantang.

[omängum fra'uti]

The only time you pause in speaking is if there's a glottal stop, indicated with /'/, such as in Na'vi.  Pronounced properly, it's Na(brief pause)vi.  In the movie, you can hear Dr. Grace Augustine pronouncing a very exaggerated glottal stop when she asks Norm how his Na'vi is.  It's not actually really a "pause" just a brief break in speaking.

The ejectives can sometimes sound like they have a brief pause associated with them, due to how the sound is produced.

Tsmu-kan is the syllable break.

[Doolio]

okay, i remembered a quickie:)

if i am not wrong, the glottal stop is used right after the ejectives as well. although you could say 'kaltxi' without the glottal stop, i remember i heard frommer says it like "kaltx'i". so the ejective tx doesn't 'flow into' i.
i think that i have read this somewhere on the forums also. for me at least, this had to be cleared, because, at first, i was saying 'kaltxi' without the glottal stop after the ejective.

or is it just that the people feel hard to pronounce ejectives in the word fluently, so they chop the word with a glottal stop after the ejective to be 'back on the track' easier?

[omängum fra'uti]

The glottal stop doesn't "come after" the ejective, it's part of pronouncing the ejective.  (In laymans terms anyway, any linguist reading that is probably screaming at their monitor.)

My understanding is that the proper pronunciation of an ejective involves stopping the flow of air and pronouncing the letter by forcing air out of your throat and mouth, rather than lungs.  Thus, the stopping to pronounce is something like a glottal stop.

(Yes, I know that's not how some people describe how to make it, but that's what I've read elsewhere.)

[Doolio]

yes, but when the air is already ejected, you can continue to control it without chopping.

i mean i can say kaltxi fluently (and it will be a proper ejective, violent proppelling from mouth and throat and all, only there won't be a pause between the 'tx' and the 'i') and i can say it like kaltx-i (with a little stop between tx and i).

or are you saying that the stop is incorporated in the ejective itself? so, if i were to say 'kx' i would force the air from my throat and mouth (thus making that clicking dry 'k' sound) and then finish it with glottal stop? or is the glottal stop only used when a vowel goes after the ejective, like a connecting sound or something?

god i wish i had a mic here somewhere:)

for example, do  you remember mo'at talking to jake? she says 'we'll see if your insanity can be cured'. basically, she uses perfidious ejectives in that sentence ( 'insanit(x)y' and 'c(x)ured', let's write it down like that). she doesn't pause after the ejective, although she is basically pronouncing them. she doesn't say kx-yurd, she says kxyurd, to put it that way.

edit:
okay, i've been doing some listening to sound samples and i came to the conclusion that the glottal stop as the part of an ejective occurs when there is a vowel after the ejective, the stop serves as a transitional point betweent the ejective and the vowel.

[omängum fra'uti]

I don't think it's strictly required, but it often ends up there.

The reason I say a glottal stop is part of the pronunciation is merely that both involve closing the glottis.  A glottal stop it is to pause the sound, and an ejective it is to push the air up and out rather than down.  Going from there right back into vocalization (Esp for vowels) isn't always smooth for people not practiced in speaking ejectives.

[Doolio]

okay, irayo:)

as i see it, you are okay as long as the listener has no trouble understanding you (for example if he wants to write down what you are saying). i have listened to various sound samples from a couple of languages that use ejectives and i can say that they vary a lot. one language (i forgot it's name) uses very suptle ejectives, more suptle than mo'at's "insanitxì", whereas navajo uses very popping, disruptive ejectives that clearly cut the word in half as they use very expressive glottal stop for 'going back from the ejective to normal vocalization'.