On Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:41:02 -0500, Alex Fink <000024@...> wrote:
>[snip]
>I think there are two words wanting here.
I think you might be right.
>One is the word for a chunk of shape C*V*C* (a valley, or dingle).
No, a dingle has the V*C*V* shape.
The C*V*C* shape (at least if it's a sonority trough-peak-trough) is
a "syllable".
>The other is a hyponym of this, meaning
>one of the phonological building blocks used in a given language or
>languageoid thingy, of which syllables and dingles are particular types:
>this is what "Lego block" would seem most naturally to mean.
Makes sense.
>[interesting stuff snipped]
The rest of your post is entertaining, too.