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

From:J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...>
Date:Thursday, June 14, 2001, 17:51
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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John Cowan <jcowan@...>