Re: retroflex consonants
| From: | Roger Mills <romilly@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Monday, January 27, 2003, 17:29 |
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John Cowan wrote:
>Danny Wier scripsit:
>
>> Which languages around the world and in conlangs have retroflexes, how
did
>> they develop, and how do they contrast phonemically with dentals,
alveolars,
>> palatoalveolars, etc.?
>
>The Indic languages have them, but probably borrowed them from the
surrounding
>Dravidian languages.
>
>They have developed within historic times in Scandinavia from /rC/.
>
Add: Javanese. (Possibly Madurese IIRC, but due to heavy borrowing from
Jav. if so). In modern romanized Jav. they are written "dh, th" (there are
no others, I think; they don't bother indicating retro. /n/ in e.g. "ndh"
though the old writing system may do so). Whether they are native or due to
heavy Sanskrit influence and/or imitation is debatable. A retroflex series
is reconstructed for PAN, but the Jav. sounds don't always correspond.
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