Re: CHAT: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, June 21, 1999, 1:18 |
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Paul Bennett wrote:
> 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?)
Just chance. Most of those languages belong to a single family,
Polynesian. It just so happens that that family is characterized by
small phonemic inventories.
--
Happy that Nation, - fortunate that age, whose history is not diverting
-- Benjamin Franklin
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