Re: linguolabials (was: Re: Hell hath no Fury)

Andreas Johansson wrote:

> J Matthew Pearson wrote:
> >
> >Ladefoged and Maddieson ("The Sounds of the World's Languages", 1996)
> >report the existence of linguolabials in a small group of languages spoken
> >in Vanuatu.  Languages cited include Tangoa, Vao, and Umotina--none of
> >which I have heard of.  No other languages are known to have these sounds.
>
> "These sounds", that means they've got a who series? From what you say
> above, I conlcude they've got a voiceless linguolabial stop - what are the
> rest?
Based on L&M's examples, it appears that Vao has at least a voiced stop and a
voiced nasal.  Tangoa has these as well, and also a voiceless stop and a voiced
fricative.  Possibly others.  There's no articulatory reason why a language
couldn't have as many linguolabials as it has, say, dentals or alveolars:
Linguolabials could be voiced or voiceless, aspirated or unaspirated, continuant
or non-continuant, nasal or non-nasal, affricated or non-affricated, etc. etc.


> Also, how're these sounds denoted in orthography? Are there any IPA or
> X-SAMPA conventions for representing them?
In IPA, they are represented using the regular coronal symbols ([t], [d], [n],
etc.) with a diacritic underneath them.  This diacritic looks like a flattened V
(or an upside-down circumflex) with the ends curled down--or like a squashed
McDonald's-style M.

Matt.

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