Re: /nj/ vs. /J/ [was Re: sounds I can't find!!!]

Andreas Johansson jazdy:

> How did they arrive at /kanak/ for "New Caledonian"?
Philip Newton jazdy:

> Fairly straightforwardly, I imagine; it's the self-designation of the
> inhabitants.
This was the answer. And I certainly meant aboriginal population of that
land. And the word is hardly known to an average Russian speaker. I merely
wanted to demonstrate /n;/ ~ /n;j/ opposition when I thought it would be
good to add a non-palatal variant. So this was the first thing that came to
my mind. Giving phonetic explanations, I don't care much about ethymology.

Anyway, I've forgotten (as well as the other guys) to add "Obligatory
Conlang Info"! No good. So I do it here:

ObConlang: Kuman Tyli also distinguishes [n] ~ [n;] ~ [n;j] e.g. [k;un]
'day' ~ [k;un;u] 'his day' ~ [k;un;je] 'day (Dat.sn.)'. I'm not sure if this
distinction is phonemic, because the underlying phonemic structure seems to
be like this: /kün/ ~ /küni/ ~ /künja/.

-- Yitzik