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Re: CHAT: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo

From:Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...>
Date:Thursday, June 24, 1999, 10:43
R. Nierse wrote:

>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.
If I think this is what I think this is, then this language is related = to=20 Desano. In these languages, nasality is a suprasegmental feature. So the = voiced stops become nasal stops in words with suprasegmental nasality. I = think that that is such an interesting feature. My five cents, -kristian- 8)