Re: Phonation or Register Tones (was: Trial of the century?)

Kristian Jensen wrote:

> It appears that tonal conlangs are common enough. But I dare say
> that there are not many conlangs with contrastive phonations. Some
> languages contrast creaky voice, modal voice, and breathy voice at
> the syllable level. I have heard that many Austro-Asiatic languages
> do this as well as a few Amerind languages. In any case, it is quite
> rare the world over. Could this account for why this might be rare
> among conlangs?
I doubt it.  The structure of most conlangs is, for the most part, a prod=
uct
of the creators linguistic experience.  A great many otherwise rare featu=
res
might be present if that's what the creator's experience dictates.  You h=
ave
to get way up into linguistic theory and knowledge about obscure language=
s
before these rare features' presence or absence is the result of a person
deciding to put them in or not.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"Ich folge Dir, verkl=E4rter Held!
   Dir, Erstling der erschlafnen Frommen!
Triumph! Der Tod is weggenommen,
   der auf der Welt der Geister lag!"
     -- from _Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu_
 (arranged to music by C. P. E. Bach)
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