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Re: Would this consonant distribution be realistic?

From:Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Date:Sunday, October 6, 2002, 3:09
Steven Williams wrote:
> Please note the loss of the voicing contrast between > the labial stops - historically, [b] shifted to [v]. > Is it realistic to have the only voicing contrast in > fricatives to be held in the labials, rather than the > alveolars? Does this violate any universals that I > should worry about, or should I simply not worry about > universals and just have a merry old time with my > beautifully asymmetrical phonetic chart?
Well, the fact that you have /p/ without /b/ is very odd. If there's a voiced stop missing, it will most likely be further back in the mouth, e.g., /k/ without /g/, while a missing voiceless stop is likely to be labial, thus having /b/ but not /p/. Altho, I suppose that an earlier stage could've lost both /p/ and /b/, and then later borrowings from another language that had only voiceless stops re-introduced /p/ without /b/. -- "There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd, you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." - overheard ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42