Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Language "laws"?

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 12, 2004, 8:41
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/. Andreas

Replies

Tim May <butsuri@...>lone fricatives
Dirk Elzinga <dirk_elzinga@...>