F and V Stops?!

The Banin grammaticians classify their consonants in a weird manner... f
and v are classed together with stops. Here is their scheme:

a) "very hard" consonants: p, b, q, g (as in goat), t, d, f, v.

Why f and v?! "Obvious", they say: "very hard" consonants may never be postvocalic,
and may be followed by r or l.

b) "hard" consonants: j, m, x, z. These may not be postvocalic, but may
not be followed by r or l.

c) "soft" consonants: n, s. They may be postvocalic, but not be in second
place in a consonantal group. And are never followed by r or l.

d) "very soft" consonants: r, l. May be postvocalic, and may be second place
in a consonantal group.

But they do not agree all about s. Some think it is "very soft", because
it may come in second place in postvocalic consonantal groups.

Their classification seems to be centered in their own language; arguing
to them that other languages may have other phonotactics is no use, because
they think this "proves" that other languages are "barbaric".

Is there a difference between f/v and z/s in that the latter are more commonly
postvocalic in most languages?

Luís Henrique



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