Re: Sound changes

 --- JS Bangs wrote:

> Herman Miller sikyal:
>
> > Bilabial and labiodental sounds in Simape~ (the ancestor language) end up
> > as dental sounds in Hinate~.
> >
> > /p/ > /t_d/
> > /p_h/ > /t_d_h/
> > /f/ > /T/
> > /v/ > /D/
> > /m/ > /n_d/
>
> Eh?  This is very, very, very odd, to the point that I would reject it as
> unnatural. Consonants do not randomly change places of articulation (and
> such a thing is prohibited under modern phonological theories), and you
> reverse several well-attested phonological processes. /T/ > /f/ and /D/ >
> /v/ are both plausible, but their reverses are essentially unknown.
Well, I think that depends on the physiology of the speakers.
Let's say, if a race has only an upper lip but no lower lip, their p's and b's
would probably be achieved with the tongue (lingua-labials?), and in such a
case it's just a minor step to dental.
But I realize that's something different than bilabials.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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