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Re: retroflex consonants

From:Danny Wier <dawier@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 28, 2003, 1:10
Well I appreciate the feedback on this topic! I should've mentioned this,
but I did know of quite a few cases of retroflexes in natlangs (and one
conlang, Klingon). I'm doing a survey, in a way.

So far I have:

American English (r)
Swedish, Norwegian (most dialects, r + dental)
Polish (sz, z.)
Pashto (x^, g^, n^, r^; t^ and d^ in loanwords only)
Balochi?
Most Indic languages (t., d., t.h, d.h, n., s., sometimes l.)
Somali (dh = retroflex and implosive d)
Abkhaz (and maybe other Northwest Caucasian languages)
All or most Dravidian languages (Tamil has t., tt., n., l., z.)
Mandarin (ch, zh, sh, r; retroflex vowel: er)
Tibetan (clusters of kr, gr etc.)
Hmong
Vietnamese (tr, s)
Santali and other Munda languages
Australian languages such as Arrernte (written as r + t/d/n/r/l)

I don't know Amerind languages that well, so there are probably some
examples there I'm not aware of.

Conlangs:
Klingon (D, S)
Tsolyani?

I'm really wondering how retroflexes developed in various languages, whether
from rhotic clusters, backing of palatals or palatoalveolars, etc.

Replies

Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
Josh Brandt-Young <vionau@...>
Herman Miller <hmiller@...>