Re: CHAT: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo

On 19 Jun 99, at 20:28, J.Barefoot wrote:

> >Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:
> >In the initial design, only 7 consonants existed (p, t, k,
> >w, y, n, l), with a very simple syllable structure (C)V(n/l).  Watakass=
=ED
> >is now more complex.
>
> That reminds me... Does anyone know what the lower bound for number of
> phonemes is for a natural language?
>
This is all off the top of my head, but IIRC Hawaiian has 7C and 5V
(plus length distinction in vowels), something like:

h k p l ' w n
a e i o u

Hawaiian is one of those languages I read about 2 chapters on, got
pretty bamboozled about and always wished I'd tried harder with.
Mind you, that was a few years back, so maybe I'll dig it up again.
Maybe a different book'd help.



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Pb