Re: CHAT: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo

I know of Waorani (Ecuador) to have /p/ /t/ /k/ /b/ /d/ /g/ /w/ and /i/ /e/
/ae/ (ligature as in 'ash') /a/ /o/ + nasal vowels.
Although in the middle of the rainforest, they were somewhat isolated. Only
in the 1960's contacts with the 'whites' became more intensive. I don't
know a lot of the inventories of surrounding languages, at least Quichua
has not many phonemes as well.

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> Van: Paul Bennett <pbennett@...>
> 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?)
>
>
> ---
> Pb