Re: Thagojian phonology (was Re: oh no, not Tech phonology again)
From: | Matt Pearson <jmpearson@...> |
Date: | Friday, February 25, 2000, 21:28 |
>Hey, since we've been talking about massive phonologies, how about the other
>extreme? Any ideas for a conlang with as FEW consonants and vowels as
>possible? I'm thinking something like the following nine:
>
>Vowels: a i u (3)
>Consonants: p t k s m l (6)
>
>Or drop the s... or even drop all but p t k!
Tokana has a rather minimal phoneme inventory, although not as
minimal as your proposed nine sounds--Tokana has eighteen
(seventeen in the Coastal dialect, which has all but lost <f>):
Vowels: a, y, e, o, i, u (6)
Consonants: p, th, t, ts, k, (f), s, lh, h, m, n, l (12)
Of these, <y> is a back/central unrounded vowel, <th> is a
lamino-dental stop, and <lh> is a postalveolar lateral fricative.
I'm a big fan of minimal phoneme inventories, as I've said before
on this list. No six-way stop contrasts for me. Just /p, t, k/ will
do fine!
Matt.