Re: CHAT: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo

On 20 Jun 99, at 14:47, mathias wrote:

> Dans un courrier dat=E9 du 20/06/99 19:12:53  ,  Paul Bennett =E9crit :
>
> > 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
>
> tahitian is 15 :
> ' f h k m n p r t v
> a e i o u
> but u and i are also SV w and y, and ti and hi are almost like japanese =
chi
> and hi.
>
> me-too =A7 :
> tunu root phono are 12 : k m n p r s t a e i o u (1153 root words) - and=
> non-root phono are 2 : h ng + SV u and i written w and y.
Is it just my imagination, but do most if not all small-phoneme-
inventory languages belong to isolated islands out in the middle of
the ocean? :-)

Counterexamples (tunu?), if you please.  Also, if anyone feels like
it, theories/arguements as to why this is.  (Lack of contact with
other languages with which to compare and contrast phonemes?)


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Pb