Re: CHAT: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo

Well, Tvern El has the following inventory:

/t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /v/, /R/, /l/, /n/ 9 consonants.

/E/, /a/, /I/ 3 vowels.

12 total.

Of those /R/, /l/ and /n/ are restricted to syllable final position and the
other consonants are restricted to syllable initial position.



>From: Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
>Subject: Re: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo
>Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 20:57:34 +0200
>
>J. Barefoot wrote:
> >That reminds me... Does anyone know what the lower bound for number of
> >phonemes is for a natural language?
>
>Nik Taylor already mentioned Rotokas has the lowest number known.
>
>Let me just add a bit of theory.
>
>For vowels, it is said that the lowest contrast of major vowel
>features will always be in vowel height. Even if a language was
>only two vowels, these vowels are more likely to be /a/ and /@/
>rather than /i/ and /u/. Of course, a language with only one
>vowel, contrasts in major vowel features are ruled out
>altogether.
>
>As for consonants, a language will always have obstruents. Look
>at Rotokas for instance, from what Nik has posted, all but one
>are obstruents. Also, the contrastive POAs are likely to be
>labial vs coronal vs dorsal rather than anything else. Again,
>look at Rotokas.
>
>-kristian- 8)

_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com