Re: Phonology question

Thanks, that helps. But what about in languages with a richer phonemic
inventory? Something that has all sorts of stops, nasals, frictives, and
africtives, but still lacks liquids.

Thanks,
~Caleb

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Philip Newton <philip.newton@G...> wrote:
> On Fri, 6 Aug 2004 23:56:44 -0500, Caleb Hines <cph9fa@a...> wrote:
> > Are there many (or even any) natlangs which lack any liquids (such as r
and
> > l)? Would it be very plausible for a language to develop without
liquids?
> > For example, I believe I've heard that nasals are almost universal.
>
> Everyone's favourite minimal-phonology natlangs, Rotokas (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotokas_language ) and Pirahã (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%FAra-Pirah%E3_language ) both appear to
> lack both phonemic liquids and nasals; the have only fricatives and
> stops (and Rotokas has one 'tap': [4]).
>
> Though the article on Pirahã mentions that /b/ has an allophone [m],
> for example, so it does not prohibit nasals.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Philip Newton <philip.newton@g...>