Re: Language "laws"?

On Oct 12, 2004, at 2:41 AM, Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Quoting Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>:
>
>> I can think of languages that have /s/ but no other fricatives; but I
>> cannot think of any with just /T/. However, I don't see why at some
>> stage
>> a lonely [s] could not have changed to [T] (maybe a monarch or ruler
>> had a
>> lisp, and courtiers/followers/sycophants copied him/her and then it
>> became
>> a mark of 'polite speech' and so eventually spread to all layers of
>> society) - in fact I would not be unduly surprised if a language were
>> found with /T/ as its only fricative.
>
> Is there a reason for /s/ being the typical choice of a lone fric? I
> can't think
> of any single-fric language where the only fric is anything else than
> /s/.
There is an acoustic/perceptual explanation. Fricatives are
characterized by turbulent airflow, which translates acoustically into
something like white noise. For /s/, the relative frequency of this
noise is very high--roughly 10,000 Hz--which makes it very salient. So
if there is going to be only one fricative, you're better off making it
an /s/.

Of course, not everyone buys into the functional explanation, but it
strikes me as having the whiff of plausibility.

On Oct 12, 2004, at 9:53 AM, Roger Mills wrote:

> Ray Brown wrote:
>
>> I can think of languages that have /s/ but no other fricatives; but I
>> cannot think of any with just /T/. However, I don't see why at some
>> stage
>> a lonely [s] could not have changed to [T]....
>> ...in fact I would not be unduly surprised if a language were
>> found with /T/ as its only fricative.
>
> IIRC you or someone else mentioned Burmese, which has [T] reflecting
> *s; it
> may also have [s] from some other source, but I don't know.
>
> Apparently [T] is an acceptable pronunciation of /s/ in Acehnese, and
> characterizes at least one dialect thereof.
>
> Fijian has /D/ [D], also reflecting *s (and others), but no [T]~/T/;
> but
> also /s/ reflecting other proto-sounds. It also boasts /v/ [B], but no
> /f/.
> (Fijian /v/ reflects earlier *f.)
>
> Hawaiian has the sole fricative /h/, which is the merger of the same
> two
> earlier sounds, *f and *s.
The Goshute dialect of Shoshoni has replaced the strident alveolar
affricate /ts/ and its alveolar allophones [z, dz, s] with non-strident
interdentals /tT/, [D, dD, T]. It retains Shoshoni /s/, but the shift
from strident alveolars to non-strident interdentals is a bit unusual,
and is of a piece with the Austronesian examples Roger gives.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

"I believe that phonology is superior to music. It is more variable and
its pecuniary possibilities are far greater." - Erik Satie