Re: me again

Quoting JS Bangs <jaspax@...>:

> Thomas R. Wier sikyal:
>
> > I thought so. It is not in fact unprecedented for what
> > are normally considered consonant clusters to be considered
> > unit phonemes (Georgian's so-called "harmonic clusters" like
> > /t_s'q_X'/ and /bd/ pattern this way), but they are *vanishingly*
> > rare.  Such clusters apparently always agree in laryngeal
> > features, like voicing or glottalization. So, your /ps/ and
> > /ks/ pass the test, even if I doubt very much whether any
> > other conlang has them!
[...]

> Also, aren't the nasal occlusives [mb nd Ng] fairly common as unit
> phonemes?  I believe that they occur in Kiswahili, where they even
> constrast with NC clusters, e.g. a hypothetical [a.mbu] could contrast
> with [am.bu].
Yes, the nasal occlusives are fairly common as unit phonemes, but
they also share the same place of articulation, just like affricates,
which are also very common.  The unusual thing about Georgian's
harmonic clusters is that they do not share the same place of
articulation at all, and may indeed even be composed of many
articulations:  Georgian /t_s'q_X'/ is supposedly one phoneme,
but composed of two affricates at differing places of articulation,
which are themselves composed of differing values for the feature
[+- continous].

So, your /ks/ and /ps/ are more like the Georgian harmonic clusters
in *not* sharing a place of articulation.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers