Re: Q (Caucasian Elf)

Herman Miller writes in reply to me:

> >Actually, the language with the most consonants is !Xu~, a
> Khoisan language,
> >with 95.  But 48 of them are clicks, leaving 47 non-clicks.  The
> UPSID list
> >of largest consonant inventories of living languages (Ubykh is
> now extinct),
> >from Larry Trask in an article on Basque and Nostratic:
> >6)  Haida (Na-Dene) 46
> >7)  Nazahua (?) 45
> >    Shilha (Afro-Asiatic) 45
> >9)  Irish Gaelic (Indo-European > Celtic) 6
> >10) Igbo (Niger-Congo) 43
> Irish Gaelic? That doesn't seem right. I know it's got 2 versions of most
> consonants (palatalized and velarized), and 3 of some, but I can't see how
> you'd get more than 35 or so in all. I wonder why Sindhi isn't on
> the list.
That number does sound high.  Lemme count it myself:

b, c = /k/, d, f = ph, g, h = sh = th, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, bh = mh = v, dh
= gh, ll, nn, rr (fh = zero)  total: 18

But each consonant has both a "slender" and a "broad" pronunciation
depending on neighboring vowels, and these are fully phonemic.  That makes
36.  But the double liquids (ll, nn, rr) have merged with the singles in
some dialects, and in others /h/ is never palatized.

The high number Trask came up with is probably that of a certain local
dialect, like his very high number he had for a form of Arabic.

> As far as my conlangs, Olaetian has up to 43 consonant phonemes in some
> dialects. But this comes from having "grown" over the years.
> Since Olaetian
> was my first lang, I had a tendency to add new sounds and features to it
> rather than creating a new language for them.
I've done the opposite with Tech.  Originally, I was out to have a 300
some-odd consonant language, but did lots of research and ended up
eliminating phonemes that were too difficult to distinguish from others to
human ears.  (This is much less a problem with the Elves and their Q
language, as they have highly advanced hearing and sight.)

Counting palatization, labialization and "emphasis" in both Tech and Q the
consonant inventory is still in excess of one hundred, even more than !Xu~.

Danny Boy


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