Re: Thagojian phonology (was Re: oh no, not Tech phonology again)

>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.