Number eight! (was: Re: Number nine, number nine.,..)

At 00:19 10/05/00 CDT, you wrote:
>I was thinking the other day while on the bus, and wondered what would be
>the minimum practical phonology for a language.  (Which is in contrast to my
>plans for Tech, where I wanted as large a phonology as reasonably (?)
>possible.)  I came up with six consoannts and three vowels:
>
>p t k
>m n g (=[N])
>i a u
>
>No length, no tone, just these.  Syllables are V, CV, VC or CVC, or n
>multiple syllables words, (C)V(C)CV (if two consonants occur in sequence
>they must be a nasal then a homogenous stop).  So possible words would be:
>a, ta, at, tat, atat, tata, tanta, tantat and so on.  (The sequence [Nk] is
>writtem 'nk', not 'gk'.)  *Addendum: Two vowels can occur together but not
>without a hiatus, especially two of the same vowel: aa = a-a, ai = a-i, etc.
>
>A tentative name for this language is "Number Nine", because of its
>nine-letter alphabet.  I offer this challenge to anybody interested...
>
>Then we can compare notes.  Remember, *only* those sox consonants and three
>vowels are allowed!
>
>Good luck,
>
Hey hey... one of my first conlangs does better, with only eight phonemes:
- four consonnants: k, m, s, f
- four vowels: a, i, o, u
Syllable structure V, CV, VC, or CVC, with CC-clusters allowed at the
beginning of a word.

The grammar I made at that time was quite impractical though... (hey, I was
only 16 and didn't know much about linguistics :) )

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org
(ou : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepages/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html)