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

From:J. 'Mach' Wust <j_mach_wust@...>
Date:Monday, August 16, 2004, 8:28
On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 13:46:36 +1000, =?iso-8859-1?q?Tristan=20Mc=20Leay?=
<kesuari@...> wrote:

> --- Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote: >> Trebor asked: > >> > Is this contrast [[n_j] vs [J]] phonemic anywhere? >> > >> _Possibly_ in French, Spanish, Italian (at least >> according to the written >> forms): >> >> [n_j] vs. [J] >> Spanish unión vs. uña '(finger)nail' >> French union vs. oignon >> Italian unione vs. ogni >> >> But I'd be willing to bet that in practice nobody >> observes it. > >Well, I asked Christophe once, and he couldn't think >of an example where it was phonemic,
If you insist that in order to prove a contrast to be phonemic, you really need two existing words (not only two meaningless words that follow the phontactics of the language), then you could take the Spanish words _soña_ vs. _Sonia_. Actually, the latter isn't really a word, but a Spanish proper name. I'm pretty sure that they're not pronounced the same. g_0ry@_^s: j. 'mach' wust