An Exotic Speech Sound

I blogged about the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) yesterday. It identifies not only what the sound "sounds" like but also how it is made. A story related to that:

Years ago when Chuck Walton first lived in the Philippines, he visited a language community in the far north of the country. When he told them that he was interested in collecting some samples of their language, they told him that it was too difficult for a foreigner to pronounce. And also impossible to write. Though they had many sound differences from most Philippine languages, one sound in particular was regarded as too difficult for anyone but a native to pronounce.

Knowing that the study of phonetics had prepared him to observe carefully how the speaker's mouth moved, so as to see what speech mechanisms were used to produce the sound, he would have a good chance of using the same mechanisms to attempt to reproduce the difficult sound. It came time for the challenge. His new native friend said the word for 'blood.' Chuck noticed that his friend's tongue protruded from his mouth and the blade of his tongue seemed to go up against his upper teeth. So, he tried doing the same when he repeated the word. The crowd who were watching roared with approval indicating that he had indeed reproduced the sound close to their satisfaction.