Re: me again

Quoting Paul Bennett <paul.bennett@...>:

> On 21 May 2002 at 20:59, Thomas R. Wier wrote:
>
> > > Consonantal inventory:
> > >
> > > p  ph ps b  m
> > > k  kh ks g  N
> > > t  th ts d  n
> >
> > So, presumably <ps> and <ks> here represent consonant *clusters*
> > and not affricates, right?
> >
>
> Er, yeah.
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!

=====================================================================
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

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